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Council Rock North Teacher Publishes First Book

Council Rock North English teacher Carrie Hagen has recently published "We Is Got Him," which chronicles a Philadelphia kidnapping.

You could say Carrie Hagen is living out her dream.

Some people want to play professional sports, others strive to be the president and some choose to follow in their family’s footsteps. For Carrie, though, the goal has been to write. And after years of research and work, it has become a reality.

Carrie, who has been an English teacher for Council Rock School District for the past 12 years, recently had her first book hit the shelves. Her non-fiction book, "We Is Got Him," chronicles a local, yet relatively unknown, kidnapping case in Philadelphia’s Germantown section at the time of America’s centennial celebration.

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“Surreal, surreal, surreal. I know how fortunate I am to have a book published during this tumultuous time for publishing,” said Carrie. “I am also so, so grateful to family and friends for being emotionally supportive during this draining time. I've worked hard for six years, and this certainly feels rewarding.”

With the book now on sale both at Barnes & Noble, on Amazon and via publisher, Overlook Press, Carrie will be on leave from her current English position as a junior/senior English teacher at l this year.

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She will take the time to both promote the book, including an appearance at Oxford Valley’s Barnes & Noble on Sep. 18 from 2 to 4 p.m., and to also work on another piece.

Carrie is already planning another novel involving what she called “America's fascination with spiritualism" in the post-WWI era. She does, though, plan to return to teaching in the 2012-13 school year.

“I would like for this book to do well enough for me to be able to sell another.  I hope that readers finish this book and feel like they've learned something about American history while reading an engaging story,” she said. “My goals are really that simple -- to be a good, factual storyteller.”

That was, in fact, a requirement for Carrie. After exploring the option of obtaining a Ph.D. in American Literature, she instead took on a Master’s of Fine Arts program at Goucher College in Baltimore.

At Goucher, one of Carrie’s assignments was to work on a non-fictional story. She chose the kidnapping account of Charley Ross due to her ties with Philadelphia. Her father’s family members were Germantown residents, while she and her husband live in Fairmount.

The book chronicles a father’s attempt to find his abducted son, Charley, who was taken from his front yard in July of 1874, in what Carrie cites as the first documented kidnapping for ransom case in U.S history.

The problem was that due to the impending centennial celebration, Philadelphia was attempting to show the rest the country it was a safe place. Political officials and police thus feared publicity about the kidnapping could impact attendance at the celebrations.

The story of "We Is Got Him" becomes not on only a search for Charley, but also a tale of political and police corruption.

“I was struck by the fact that the same day the kidnapping letter arrived (July 4, 1874), Philadelphia's Mayor Stokley was breaking ground in Fairmount Park for the centennial construction to begin, so it was impossible to leave that parallel event out of the book," Carrie said.

“Philadelphia needed to promote itself as a safe place for families to travel, and the longer the investigation lasted, the longer this image was in jeopardy.  As a result, political decisions were made that jeopardized the case.”  

Carrie said she enjoys investigative journalism and tries to show her students how to “read differently” in order to write more effectively. A former Levittown resident, she has now graduated from the MFA program and also holds a Master’s Degree in English from the College of New Jersey.

Previously, she taught middle school English at both Newtown and Holland middle schools and served as Council Rock North’s National Honors Society advisor.

Carrie said the process of writing a book is not easy. This one took years not only to write, but lots of frustration in getting published, she noted.

Carrie spent nights and Saturdays putting the book together and Sundays taking care of her teaching responsibilities. She also was turned down about 20 times by agents before finally getting approved.

But, she said, it has been well worth it.

Click here to view the book on Amazon.com.

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