A Sky Without Stars

A Quilts of Love Book

by Linda S. Clare

Review & GIVEAWAY!

 Lakota Star

Description

Will the Lakota Star Quilt she is making help Frankie sew a new future of happiness?

Frankie Chasing Bear is caught between cultures. She wants to raise her son Harold to revere his Lakota heritage, but she also thinks he will need to learn the white man’s ways to succeed. After the untimely death of her husband, Frankie joins the U.S. Government’s Relocation Program and moves to Arizona. There she begins sewing a Lakota Star pattern quilt for Harold with tribal wisdom sung, sewn, and prayed into it.

A bed without a quilt is like a sky without stars, but neither the quilt—nor her new life—comes easily to Frankie. Nick Parker, for instance, is the last man Frankie wants to trust. He’s half-Lakota but Christian, and Frankie can see no good coming from that faith after her own parents were forced to convert at an Indian school. Can Nick convince Frankie that white men and Christians aren’t all bad? And will Frankie learn that love is the most important ingredient—for her son’s quilt and life itself?

Purchase a copy of this book at the following locations:
http://www.deepershopping.com/
http://www.amazon.com/
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/
http://www.christianbook.com/

Biography

Linda S. Clare is an award-winning author and coauthor of several books and has also published many essays, stories, and poems in publications including The Christian Reader, The Denver Post, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Born in Arizona, Linda and her husband now make their home in Eugene, Oregon, where Linda has taught college-level creative writing classes, and writes, edits, and mentors other writers. She also is a frequent writing conference presenter, a church retreat leader, and mom to four grown children and five wayward cats.

Contact information:
http://www.lindasclare.com/
https://www.facebook.com/lindaclare

My Review ~

A young Lakota Indian woman and her 10-year-old son moved from a painful past in Pine Ridge, South Dakota to a different type of volatile situation just outside Phoenix, Arizona. Frankie had dreams that she and her son could receive an education and a chance to better themselves. The Indians living in the "white" world were scorned and looked down upon, oftentimes with a despairing outcome. 

Having no family or friends, and being bullied by the community, they were suspicious of anyone and everyone. Taught to quilt by her grandmother, Frankie spent her free time constructing a Lakota Star quilt for her son, a tradition in the Lakota community for a boy's coming of age. As she quilted she spoke to her grandmother, her spiritual connection. Although her grandmother was Lakota, she also believed in God which Frankie found impossible to understand. She saw no need for God in her life. 

Nick Parker from the Bureau of Land Management was light-skinned with dark hair, wearing a belt buckle with an agate, representing Lakota heritage. He offered help to Frankie and her son, although Frankie wouldn't trust a halfbreed who also happened to be a Christian. She kept up barriers to any type of relationship with the man, having no trust for men due to her past experiences.

Detailed and authentic, this is an accurate accounting of the Indian community versus the white community, and the misconceptions that each presumed about the other. The story of the Lakota Star quilt, otherwise known as the Bethlehem Star in the Christian context, is pivotal in this representation of the differences and adversities between the Indian and the Christian community. Pictorial and well documented, I found this to be an interesting story in the Quilts of Love series. Linda Clare has done her research and presented a detailed and personal account of two separate worlds attempting to coexist. Learning to forgive and rely on others is a valuable lesson to be learned in this story of suspicion, apprehension and mistrust.

Disclaimer: I received copies of this book from LitFuse Publicity and Wynn-Wynn Media in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own, and no monetary compensation was received for this review.

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