Shades of Truth

Kinsman (Spilled Ink) opens the From Sadie’s Sketchbook series with 12-year-old Sadie Douglas’s recent move from California to Owl Creek, Mich., where her father will mediate between bear researchers and the state’s Department of Natural Resources and the local hunters who want to remove the threat posed by bears. The move is also designed to help Sadie’s mom, who suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome. Sadie misses her best friends, and the local kids, most of them children of hunters, don’t welcome the new bear-hugging family. Sadie’s classmate Frankie seems especially to have it in for the new girl. It isn’t clear how much Sadie can trust her new friend Ruth, but her art classes open a door to observation of the world and the expressions and motives of people—and bears—coexisting in that world. Kinsman offers a realistic and nuanced rendering that works for readers who want to know about the role of Christian faith in a young person’s development, as well as those who like a fresh story about the journey of growing up. Flickering Hope, the next book in the series, is available simultaneously. Ages 9–up. (Dec.)