![]() ![]() It’s not melodramatic, but just a Saturday in which an African-American father and son immerse themselves in each other’s company when the woman of the house is away. There is something profoundly elemental going on in Smalls’s book: the capturing of a moment of unmediated joy. (glossary, author’s note, bibliography) (Fiction. ![]() Readers will cheer as the truth sets Rachel free, and as she, against all odds, becomes a doctor and returns to Africa to rebuild the hospital where her father healed patients before her. Though it bogs down with the rehashing of Rachel’s internal dilemmas and in African animal metaphors, the story remains irresistible in a The Prince and the Pauper or The Secret Garden sort of way. The up-until-now somber novel blooms as the orphaned Rachel shares her newfound grandfather’s passion for bird watching and bonds with him despite her reluctant impersonation. ![]() In this satisfying story set in the early 20th century, the money-grubbing Pritchards swap the unassuming 13-year-old Rachel for their spoiled daughter Valerie when Valerie dies, manipulating her into traveling to England to pose as the rich, elderly Mr. Little does she suspect that the loss of her own British missionary parents to influenza will leave her to the wicked clutches of the neighboring Pritchards. Raised in British East Africa, Rachel knows well that when parents die, their young are vulnerable to attack. ![]()
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