Secesh by Sue Thomas

July, 1861. The Civil War was dividing the people of Missouri. Eleven-year-old Kate was loyal to the Confederacy from the onset, but when she listened to her parents and two older brothers and heard their divided opinions, she began to realize that the issues were not simple. Through Kate’s eyes we see a family’s daily life and a systems of relationships: North and South, family and neighbors, siblings, parents and children, family and farmland, mother and daughter, and father and sons.

Momma was raised on a Kentucky tobacco plantation and condoned slavery, viewing slaves as manpower. Steadfast and loving Poppa came from the Kentucky hill country, was a hard worker, and learned to read from Momma. Together they homesteaded in Missouri and raised a family. Oldest son, David, shared the popular idea that the war would be short, and joined the Confederates for the money. Fifteen-year-old Waltus joined the Yankees. Passionate about the rights of every human being to a life, to work and to dream of accomplishment, and himself dreaming one day of owning a wool mill, Waltus couldn’t fight on the side that condoned men stealing his sheep, his dream, or the rights and hopes of others. Young Benjamin was often the thorn in Kate’s side, Momma’s “good boy,” but he and Kate shared dangerous adventures.

Kate is a typical intelligent eleven-about-to-be twelve year-old. She cannot keep a secret. She asks a hundred questions. Her pet, Grasshopper (a goat), is her confidant. She has just begun to question Momma’s opinions because she is shaken by Momma’s heartless reaction to a neighbor’s captured runaway slave girl being separated from her baby (which is sold) to teach her a lesson. Throughout the insecurities and deepening awareness of others’ feelings that that war brings to her, Kate learns that family love remains a solid grounding.

A leading educator in the field of teaching children to express their creativity, Sue Thomas has co-authored the highly acclaimed Curtain Volumes I and II: A Guide to Creative Drama for Children, and has written one of the best books ever on teaching the writing of poetry, The Poetry Pad. In Secesh, her first novel, she has brought her consid-erable talents to shaping wonderfully absorbing characters, and an historically correct action-filled plot. Young Kate, our eyes to her slice of history and into the fine workings of her family, is a gem of a child with a diversity of expres-sions of her feelings and thoughts, and a growing awareness of Self. Sue Thomas is a resident of Missouri.