Brothers of the Heart

Fourteen-year-old Shem spends six months in the Michigan wilderness alone with a dying Indian woman, who helps him, not only to survive, but to mature to the point where he can return to his family and the difficulties of life as a cripple in a frontier village.

Grade 7-9 Shem, 14 years old and lame from birth, has traveled westward from Detroit to settle with his family in Millfield, a new town on the edge of the Michigan frontier. Frustration at not finding work and a falling-out with his father cause Shem to run away from home and look for a job in Detroit. As a clerk in a trading company, he is chosen to accompany a trading expedition into the wilderness. Separated from the traders during a storm, he encounters an Indian woman, Mary Goodhue, who teaches him the skills of wilderness living and, more importantly, teaches him to cope with his weaknesses and develop his strengths. When Mary dies, Shem finds his way out of the wilderness and returns to Millfield with an air of self-confidence that makes his lameness barely noticeable. There are many memorable scenes and fine characterizations in this story. Excerpts from letters and diary entries are liberally sprinkled throughout the text, giving a sense of authenticity and a documentary tone to the story; but too often the abrupt transitions and changes of perspective tend to interrupt the smooth flow of the narrative. The style, while true to the period, may prove slow going for most readers, but this certainly fills a need for good historical fiction of the early 19th Century. Connie C. Rockman, Ferguson Library, Stamford, Conn.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.