Finding Faith: A Novel
C. E. Edmonson
WinePress Publishing (2011)
ISBN 9781414118673
Reviewed by Kristen Keiran (age 13) for Reader Views (2/11)
I think that C. E. Edmonson is trying to show people how Native Americans were treated in the early 1900s. You are shown this from a thirteen-year-old girl’s point of view; her name is Faith. It all takes place during the depression in 1934.
Faith Covington has everything she could ever have dreamed of - loving parents, a huge house, her parents were rich, and she acted like a young lady. All of this is destroyed when America is hit with the worst thing possible - The Depression. When Mr. Covington’s company goes out of business and the banks go bankrupt, Faith’s world is turned upside down.
The only possible solution is for Faith and her mother to go live with their Aunt Eva while her father stays in New York to try and find work. Faith finds Aunt Eva is a Lenape Indian making her part Indian too. She is faced with persecution and racism, things she had never been exposed to. After she and her mother have settled in and she has become accustomed to her aunt’s ways, things start to go bad. When an Indian named Red-Moon has his barn burned down, Faith and everybody else knows things aren’t right. The people are confused and worried and their fears are confirmed when the next day Red-Moon is shot in the head and Paul sees a pickup truck driving away from the scene.
This story is full of adventure and mystery. You also get to know what it would’ve been like for a teenage girl struggling to survive during the depression while experiencing the ups and downs of living in a new community and learning trust with the Lenape people. My opinion would be that this book is recommended for ages 12+ and for both genders.
I found it interesting when I could relate to the plants and animals. When Faith talks about seeing a black head sticking up out of the water I knew it to be a loon or when she talks about sweet berries growing close to the ground I recognized blueberries.
Finally, I personally loved this book. I have always found Historical-Fiction fascinating and “Finding Faith” is the perfect book to read. C. E. Edmonson tells the story and makes you feel like you are there, like you know Faith and Paul and Aunt Eva, and the setting is described with great detail so you can picture it in your mind. You learn about how a rich and spoiled girl turns into a girl who can live off of the forest, can fish, can garden, can make pottery and do so much more. She finally realizes that maybe the depression was supposed to happen; maybe she was meant to come and live in the wilderness and learn the ways of the Lenape. After all, she could never have done anything like that in the busy streets of New York.
