As the Underground's first Middle Grade novel review, I am pleased to present Letters to Juniper. Peggy Tibbetts' gripping novel introduces us to twelve year old Sarah, raised in a secluded Idaho farm with extreme fundamentalist parents. Sarah’s letters paint a vivid picture of a world all too real for thousands of children throughout American history.

Set in rural Idaho, Sarah introduces us to her isolated world. At twelve, her circumstances couldn’t be more different than that of her peers. Sarah's mother is dead. Her father and step-mother now raise Sarah and her siblings on a farm straight out of the 1800s. There’s no electricity, no running water. Sarah’s father lives and breathes by the supreme law of Yashua. Strict adherence to these laws are required. The reader feels instant sympathy for Sarah who must write secret letters by candlelight, cook meals for her three younger brothers and, worst of all, spend days in the birthing shed during her menstrual cycle.

Then her father is arrested by Federal Agents for dealing in illegal firearms. The Feds want Sarah's father as an informant on a group of Neo-Nazis. When her father refuses, their world begins to unravel.

The story is told through a series of heart-felt, emotional letters from Sarah to her long lost friend Juniper who she vaguely remembers from her life in Florida. Though I sometime found myself longing for more depth of setting description than a letter could provide, the letters themselves touched me. We are drawn in to Sarah's world by the sympathy we feel for her plight and we are hooked through the end to find out what becomes of her.

Tibbetts does a thorough and thought-provoking job of taking us into the perilous life of a girl similar to those that were trapped at Waco or under Warren Jeff's tyrannical reign. Anyone who was drawn to those children's stories (who watched with baited breath as they surrounded the Branch Davidians or took the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints children into custody) will sympathize with Sarah. After all, she's just a twelve year old girl who glows after her first kiss and nearly dies of embarrassment when her period is mentioned in front of her boyfriend. Yet, she finds herself caught up in very adult situations that lead to very adult consequences. The ending is unexpected and masterfully done, as well.

My only critique would be that there were moments where I found some of the dialog hollow and some of the law enforcement procedures lacking depth. Those things fall to the wayside as you flip pages, longing to uncover what will become of Sarah and her family.

Suitable for mature middle-school and above for some tactful but violent scenes, I would recommend this book for inquisitive young minds and older minds as well. Though it is not necessarily historical, it helps us better understand parts of our history that have baffled many of us for decades.

You can find Letters to Juniper here
You can find Peggy Tibbetts here


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