The Riddle of Penncroft Farm:
Videos & Audios
Video Read-Alouds
Below are links to videos of me reading The Riddle of Penncroft Farm. I divided long chapters into two parts so that each video is around 10 minutes long.
P.S. There is no "official" audiobook of this story. I may get around to recording the rest of it, in which case I will post it here.
Geordie at the Battle of Brandywine
During the 2020-1 Pandemic, I decided to mark the anniversary of the Battle of Brandywine (September 11) by making a video recording of Geordie's experience that day. Some of this overlaps with the chapter recordings I made.
I was proud to learn that during one commemoration of the battle there, a play was performed at Birmingham Meetinghouse, right on the battlefield, of this part of my story.
MUSIC
The RIDDLE SONG was a favorite folk song of our family when I was young, so I decided to put it into my historical novel for middle graders, THE RIDDLE OF PENNCROFT FARM. In chapter 6, Pat Hargreaves sings this song. As she doesn't exist outside the story, I had to sing it myself.
CHAPTER 14
"Oh," she said sadly. We went along in silence for a while, the only sounds coming from Petunia as she ambled along. Then, in rhythm with Petunia's gait, Pat started to sing.
Come, bridle me, my milk-white steed,
Come, bridle me, my pony,
That I may ride to fair London town
To plead for my Geordie.
"G-geordie?" I stammered, interrupting her song.
"It's just a folk song Dad learned when he was a kid. He said it was an old family favorite—probably because of our ancestor. "
—The Riddle of Penncroft Farm, Chapter 14
Geordie from Peter Langford on Vimeo.
The Virginia Reel
Click on this link to watch some young people dancing the Virginia Reel in a gym, like Lars and Patience. The steps are a bit different than the ones I know, but they're close enough to give you an idea what the dance is like.
V-BLOGS & OTHER VIDEOS
If any of the videos below fail to play properly, follow the blue Vimeo link below each to watch it there, or click on "Watch on Youtube" in the bottom left corner of the image.(For those videos that appear hopelessly lopsided on my website, I ONLY included an external link.)
Reading from THE RIDDLE OF PENNCROFT FARM at a reconstructed hut at Valley Forge.
Below is a very short excerpt from the 2005 dramatization of Thomas Hardy's "Under the Greenwood Tree." It shows how such a cider mill worked.
Finding the Riddle: THE RIDDLE OF PENNCROFT FARM from Dorothea Jensen on Vimeo.
This might be my favorite part of this story, because it is the excerpt that won the middle grade division of the children's literature manuscript competition at The Loft, a writers' organization in Minneapolis. This honor helped get it published later by Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.
Latch String In Action! from Dorothea Jensen on Vimeo.
Lars finds out that when he was little, he once pulled in the latchstring and stranded Aunt Cass outside. Here's a little video showing how a latchstring works.