Gray's (Holding Up the Earth) coming-of-age tale set on the Nebraska prairie in 1888 is as carefully crafted as an heirloom quilt. The story unfolds through the alternating perspectives of narrators 14-year-old Hannah and 15-year-old Isaac, who both accept jobs from progressive Eliza Moore, the judge's widow—and fall in love. Hannah's family is still reeling from a devastating blizzard (an afterword describes the one that served as inspiration for the book) in which many local schoolchildren perished, including two of Hannah's brothers. Hannah herself survived by sheltering in a haystack with Isaac, and the incident stirred up gossip. In the confines of her family's cramped sod house, Hannah feels the full weight of her father's grief, anger and shame, which prompts her to seek work with Widow Moore. Isaac, meanwhile, has run away from his abusive stepfather and a stifling life of sod-busting ("There wasn't any music in this work, at least none I could hear" ). The two help the woman to open a "resting room" for visiting farm women and to print a newspaper about women's suffrage, and their intertwined first-person accounts reflect an effective use of voice—Hannah's quieter tone (an answer to the widow's question "began to take shape, slowly, like bread rising") contrasting with Isaac's folksy twang ("I approached the [printing] press as if it were an unbroken colt—stout-heartedly but with a heap of respect"). The blossoming love story will keep readers involved, and Gray's memorable characters reveal the late 19th-century society's attitudes toward women's rights and class consciousness. Ages 10-14. (Aug.)
