Kyra Leigh Carlson is the oldest “acceptable” daughter in a family with 20 children and two more babies on the way.  Her eldest brother, Adam, is 17.  Her older sister, Emily, would be called “eldest daughter,” but she’s “unsound.”  At least Emily was born before Prophet Childs’ father died.

Kyra loves to listen to her mother’s stories about life before Prophet Childs’ took charge.  When Kyra was a small child, her mother read her stories by Doctor Seuss and took the children into town often.  Now, Kyra, her siblings and her three mothers are only allowed to read the bible and only go to town on the most special of occassions — like to buy material to make a wedding dress.

The wedding dress is for Kyra.  Kyra who, at 13, has just learned that she has been Chosen.  In four weeks, Kyra will become the wife of her Uncle Hyrum, 60 years her senior and her father’s brother.

Kyra’s never doubted that the way of the Chosen Ones was the right way, even though she hasn’t always followed the doctrine.  She sneaks away to the Mobile Library for books, so she knows about the outside world, but she has never considered running away.  At least, not until now.

This is a book that can easily be read in one sitting.  In fact, that’s precisely what I did — read it over my lunch hour, and only came back fifteen minutes late.  But although it’s a quick read, it’s one that will stay with you long after you turn the final page.

The language is sparse: Williams is able to convey in three or four words emotions that would take a lesser writer whole paragraphs.  She gives enough detail that you can clearly envision Kyra’s world, but it’s a world painted in broad strokes.  The reader must use their imagination to draw pictures of the desert landscape, the trailer compound in which Kyra and her family lives, the bookmodbile.  Despite the lack of detail, everything seems perfectly clear.

Kyra’s emotions, her fear of leaving her family (both for herself and for what may happen to them), her love of the boy who risks his life to protect her, her desperation when faced with her future, are at the forefront of this delicate and touching novel.  It would take a hard heart to come away from The Chosen One without being deeply affected.

The Chosen One
Carol Lynch Williams
St. Martin’s Griffin
May, 2009

February, 2009

Fiction

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Wintergirls. March, 2009. (ARC available – email brooks1@carnegielibrary.org to request).

McKernon, Victoria. The Devil’s Paintbox.

Naidoo, Beverly. Burn My Heart. January, 2009 (ARC available – email brooks1@carnegielibrary.org to request)

Nonfiction

Hoose, Phillip. Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice.

Walker, Sally Ann. Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland.

Read all SLJ’s February reviews.

January

Fiction

Hiaasen, Carl. Scat.

Young, E.L. Storm: the Ghost Machine.

Nonfiction

Heiligman, Deborah. Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith.

Scott, Elaine. Mars and the Search for Life.

Shange, Ntozake. Coretta Scott.

Turck, Mary C. Freedom Song: Young Voices and the Struggle for Civil Rights

Read all SLJ’s January reviews.