Shakeress - Hardcover

Kimberley Heuston is a graduate of the Vermont College MFA Program in Writing for Children and Young Adults. A historian by training, she teaches school in Salt Lake City. She is also the author of The Shakeress, the paperback version of which is on the Spring 2008 list.

Grade 5-8 Set between 1828 and 1835, this novel reads more like a history of the Shaker religion in America and the beginnings of the Mormon community in Ohio than a work of fiction. Naomi Hull, nearly 13; her sister; and two brothers have been orphaned and sent to live with their Aunt Thankful in Portsmouth, NH. When the austere woman tells Naomi that she is sending her to the mill to work, the girl decides that she and her siblings should leave and join a Shaker community. At this point, Heuston focuses on the beliefs and traditions of Shaker life, using poorly developed characters and a spare plot as vehicles to describe this culture. After a while, Naomi begins to wonder about life outside the community. She decides to make her way in the world and finds a position caring for a large family. It is only in this last third of the book that the story becomes somewhat engaging as Naomi meets Joseph Fairbanks, who is from a wealthy family and becomes smitten with her. Though she returns his feelings and they become engaged, she cannot make the commitment as she is constantly searching for a bigger purpose for her life. She becomes interested in the new Mormon faith, and her ultimate choice presents readers with a surprise. Jane Yolen's The Gift of Sarah Barker (Viking, 1981; o.p.) is far better fiction about the Shaker movement. -Renee Steinberg, Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.