The Sowing Season

Powner debuts with an enjoyable tale of friendship between a retired farmer and a teen girl, both of whom are struggling to find their place in the world. Sixty-three-year-old Gerrit Laninga has spent his entire life working the family farm in Greenville, Wash. After a particularly bad winter he decides to sell the farm, but has no idea what to do with his life once it’s sold. After years of concentrating solely on the farm, his wife feels like a stranger; his children, whom he neglected, don’t want to see him; and he can’t let go of a long-standing feud with his next-door neighbor. Fifteen-year-old Rae Walters is a straight-A student terrified of learning to drive who has always followed the plan to become a lawyer put in place by her controlling parents. After Gerrit finds Rae in his abandoned barn, where she’s hiding from her parents, he helps her learn to drive and Rae introduces Gerrit to the troubled youth at a local church, where he begins volunteering. As Rae wonders for the first time if God might have a plan for her, Gerrit works to fix his relationship with his family. This is an excellent tale of family, friendship, and finding one’s path. (Oct.)