Like a Bird Wanders, by Sharon Smith, Rosanne Croft, and Linda Reinhardt (OakTara)

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A sordid history is about to repeat itself, save for the cryptic note of a dying woman.

Grace Rose McFarland leaves a single message for her beloved granddaughter: "Julia, the lion will destroy you." Nettie and Eva Jo, Grace's sisters, honor her last request by leading Julia to her grandmother's heritage chest in the attic. In it, she discovers a stack of letters and three prayer journals. And she begins to read.

Thus comes to light the story of the McCleods, a pioneer family eking out a living in 1902 Yacolt,Washington, by the grace of God and the toil of their hands. Told exclusively through letters and entries into the sisters' prayer journals, Julia learns family secrets she never would have dreamed could be true of her upright, God-fearing grandmother. But there's a story to tell and a lesson to learn, and Grace reaches out from the realm of eternity to ensure her precious granddaughter benefits from her mistakes.

The question is, will Julia take her grandmother's message to heart ?

In Like a Bird Wanders, we experience with Julia wilderness dangers common to the early 20th-century era, but lost to most modern Americans. But the most important things we learn are not restricted to a bygone historical era, they are timeless; that is, the choices we make, good and bad, affect not only on our own lives, but the lives of those around us--and especially those dearest to us.

Grace Rose McFarland has a story to tell not only to Julia, but to all of us. The question is, will we take her message to heart?
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