THE PROMISED LAND

Maggie and Annie, the orphaned Irish-Catholic sisters who rode the orphan train to their new home in Kansas in The Journey Home (1990), now face painful choices in the sequel. Their town is divided over the recently concluded Civil War, an argument which separates Maggie from the boy she likes; many of the townspeople are still prejudiced againt the Irish; and their uncle has found them and, particularly dismayed that there is no Catholic church nearby, wants them to return with him to the Irish community in New York. After a slow, rather muddled start, the difficult dilemmas the girls face become real and involving, and a number of the very human characters reveal just how complicated their feelings about the issues are. Many of the problems are solved through familiar devices (e.g., a convenient near-drowning brings the town together), but others are settled through extended thought and difficult decisions. (Fiction. 8-12)