This is an eye-opening, heart-wrenching, hope-filled debut of a novel. I have read quite a few novels set in the American south and illuminating the life of slaves in plantation days, but I have never read a book that sheds light on the horrific experience of mothers whose children were taken from them and sold to other slave owners, never to be heard of again.  The trauma of this reality, both for parent and child, is hard to fathom - yet Eleanor Shearer has managed to salvage, from this harrowing history, a novel with a happy ending and a heart of hope. Rachel, against all the odds, does find out what happened to each of her children - not all their stories end well, as you can imagine, yet she finds healing in the knowing. Of course, the reader is left with the knowledge that, for all the good that happens in the book, the reality for countless, countless mothers was that there was no happy ending. This is a book that will stretch the hearts and minds of older teens into understanding and empathy, and, as it is a novel written for adults, is a recommended read for grown ups too!