educational and patriotic books

Author of:

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Jellybeans–About Independence Day.

Pepper’s Purple Heart–About Veteran’s Day and why we celebrate it! Through the eyes of a little girl named Claire and her friend Robbie, children learn about our nation’s veterans and why we honor them on Veterans Day. In the process, Claire also learns responsibility after her next-door neighbor, General Jones, rescues her puppy, Pepper. 

Flying Away–About the invention of the plane. Claire conquers her fear of taking her first airplane flight, and learns about aviation pioneers.

Claire’s Magic Shoes– Visiting sick children in a hospital, Claire helps them forget, for a short time, their physical disabilities by using their imagination and becoming whoever they want to be.

What Freedom Means to Me–About Flag day. General Jones teaches Claire and Robbie that with freedom comes responsibility.

Heather French Henry’s Books were published under Cubbie Blue Publishing Inc and are out of print, but many are still being used in classrooms across the US

In 2003, Cubbie Blue Publishing, now  Ravencrest Publishing, a small traditional publishing company, released a unique series of educational children’s books, the Claire Adventures series, written and illustrated by Heather French Henry, Miss America 2000, a veterans’ rights advocate. These books follow Claire as she discovers the meaning of the Fourth of July (Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Jellybeans), Flag Day (What Freedom Means to Me), and Veteran’s Day (Pepper’s Purple Heart). She also figures out how planes work in Flying Away, and how to make a sick friend feel better in, Claire’s Magic Shoes. Even though these books are out of print, they are still being used as lesson-plans by many elementary school teachers, and they remain recommended reading on many educational, state and governmental sites. In 2006 Ravencrest Publishing was created to release adult books, an imprint of Cubbie Blue Publishing. 

Heather French Henry not only achieved the title of Miss America but became a national veterans ‘advocate. As Miss America 2000, she embarked upon a national speaking tour encompassing three phases: “Our Forgotten Heroes: Honoring our Nations’Homeless Veterans,” “Homes for Heroes,” and “Fighting the Silent Enemy: Hepatitis C.” Recognized for her outstanding contributions, she received many awards including: Ten Outstanding Young Americans by the American Jr. Chamber of Commerce and the Americanism Award from the Veterans of Foreign Wars. 

Watching her father, a disabled Vietnam veteran, struggle with the nightmares of war – and then her uncle becoming a homeless veteran – strengthened Henry’s desire to champion the veteran’s cause. Henry was the first in her family to go to college. She continued her education achieving a Masters of Design and Illustration from the University of Cincinnati.

Henry is Executive Director of the Heather French Foundation for Veterans, and has recently been appointed to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs National Homeless Veterans Advisory Council. In 2001, the Heather French Henry Homeless Veterans Assistance Act was passed. She is married to Stephen L. Henry, MD, former Lt. Governor of Kentucky, where they reside with their two daughters.