By Staff Report
Karen George Aukema will be the special guest when the Friends of the Washington County Library meets at noon on Thursday, Nov. 4, in the John Wesley Center of the First United Methodist Church of Chipley.
Aukema grew up on a ranch in Florida. She received her B.S. degree in Human Sciences at Florida State University and her M.S. degree in Education at Troy State University, in Alabama. She has over a decade of experience as a public school educator/school counselor. She and her husband have five children and live in North Florida.
Ashel’s Family Christmas, her first book, is a family Christmas tale set in the Deep South, in the 1930s. Six-year-old Ashel is intrigued with a cowboy who rides into town. He quickly makes friends with the cowboy and Ashel’s mother allows him to ride with the cowboy to round up cattle.
In an effort to make Ashel’s Christmas special, the cowboy works on a project late into the night on Christmas Eve. The cowboy finally falls asleep and dreams about that first Christmas in Bethlehem. He comes to the realization that “good tidings of great joy” are meant for people in a very personal way.
The Friends of the Library reports that this book is filled with “cowboy action and tenderness.”
Hannah Collins 
KINSLEY COOK