LESSONS

This stand-alone sequel to Prairie Summer (2002), a shorter chapter book with illustrations, continues in a longer story that features ten-year-old Rachel, not only anxious about the new school year, but why her father appears sad every time he looks at her new baby brother. Rachel soon learns her parents’ secret: Their first child, also a son, died before his christening and their Lutheran minister refused to give the baby a Christian burial. The girl comes to terms with her own sense of divine salvation and sparks events that lead to the family’s healing and the reburial of her brother with a new funeral service. Based on a similar situation in Geisert’s own family, the story also evokes a strong sense of place and time—1950s South Dakota—and a disappearing way of life. This isn’t for every reader, but for children like Rachel, who care deeply about matters of the heart and soul. (Fiction. 10-12)