A Clear Spring

Overview

A Clear Spring is a 2002 Feminist Press title connected in the local catalog to the Girls First! series and to a plot in which Willa spends a summer with lesbian aunts or an aunt-and-partner household. The item has enough bibliographic and resource-list evidence for a restrained member record, but it is not a flagship page. Open Library, Internet Archive, Feminist Press, ALA Rainbow Round Table, and Library of Congress records support its existence, ISBN, publisher lane, and queer-relative annotation. Its value for the collection is genre normalization: a queer adult relationship appears inside a girls' fiction or eco-mystery frame, while the author-name split between Barbara Wilson and Barbara Sjoholm remains a useful cataloging question.^{[2][9][13][6]}

Cluster Member Record

A Clear Spring is best presented as a member record, not as a large standalone interpretation. The source trail is real but narrower than the evidence for Holly's Secret, Box Girl, or From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun. That narrower status can still be valuable. It marks how queer relatives appear in publisher and series fiction without becoming the only subject of a book. A concise record also helps prevent unsupported claims from filling the gaps left by thin reviews.^[2][6][9]

Author-Name Question

The cataloging split is one of the most important findings. The local record uses Barbara Wilson, while public Open Library and Internet Archive lanes use Barbara Sjoholm. Because Barbara Wilson is a known author identity connected to Sjoholm, the public record can acknowledge the split without silently merging it. The physical title page will matter here. Until inspected, the safest display preserves both names and treats the discrepancy as bibliographic evidence rather than an error to erase.^{[3][6][11][12]}

Queer Relatives In Genre Fiction

The local catalog identifies two lesbian aunts, while ALA Rainbow Round Table describes an aunt and partner relationship as accepted background. That distinction matters, but both versions point to the same collection theme: queer adult relationships can shape a child's summer without becoming a formal family-origin lesson. This gives the item a different role from two-mother picture books. It belongs in a relatives and genre-fiction shelf, where aunts, uncles, friends, and partners expand the household map.^[13][3][18]

Feminist Press Context

The Feminist Press publisher lane gives the item a different institutional context from Alyson Wonderland, Groundwood, or mainstream trade houses. If the Girls First! marker is confirmed on the object, the book can help show how feminist publishing created series fiction for girls that included queer adults as part of everyday narrative life. Even without a rich review trail, publisher context is meaningful because it helps researchers ask how identity representation moved through imprints, series, and genre formats.^[9][10][2]

Timeline

1. 1970Publisher contextFeminist Press was founded in the period that later shaped its girls' and feminist publishing context.^[10]
2. 2001Cataloging traceThe Library of Congress record carries LCCN 2001033970.^[12]
3. 2002PublicationOpen Library, Internet Archive, and Feminist Press records identify the 2002 publication lane.^[2][6][9]
4. 2002ISBN laneThe public ISBN 9781558612778 anchors the title's edition and cover record.^[2]
5. 2000sResource-list contextALA Rainbow Round Table includes the title in its children's LGBTQIA+ bibliography.^[13]
6. 2005Genre comparisonThe Candlestone Inn books provide a later Two Lives mystery comparison for queer-family genre fiction.^[18]
7. 2020sPublisher web traceFeminist Press continues to expose a product page for the title and ISBN.^[9]
8. 2020sCreator-name contextBarbara Sjoholm's public author site helps frame the Wilson/Sjoholm name question.^[11]

Queer Relatives And Genre Fiction

A Clear Spring is strongest as a member of a genre-fiction and queer-relatives shelf.

Citation

A Clear Spring. Barbara Sjoholm / Barbara Wilson. Feminist Press, 2002. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-191.

Sources

Cover image from Open Library.

1. Local collection catalog record for A Clear Spring (Girls First!) · catalog
2. Open Library ISBN record for A Clear Spring · library
3. Open Library search for A Clear Spring and Barbara Sjoholm · library
4. Open Library author search for Barbara Sjoholm · library
5. Open Library search for Girls First and A Clear Spring · library
6. Internet Archive metadata for A Clear Spring · library
7. Internet Archive search for A Clear Spring and Barbara Sjoholm · library
8. Google Books search for A Clear Spring ISBN · library
9. Feminist Press product page for A Clear Spring · publisher
10. Feminist Press site · publisher_context
11. Barbara Sjoholm official site · creator
12. Library of Congress LCCN record for A Clear Spring · library
13. ALA Rainbow Round Table children's bibliography · resource_list
14. Existing collection record for Annie on My Mind · internal
15. Existing collection record for In Our Mothers' House · internal
16. Existing collection record for Black is Brown is Tan · internal
17. Existing collection record for Lesbian and Gay Voices · internal
18. Existing collection record for The Case of the Stolen Scarab · internal
19. Existing collection record for The Case of the Vanishing Valuables · internal