Fourteen-year-old April Garnet Rose has never met her father. He ran off with a carnival singer before she was born. Suddenly deciding to leave Virginia for Florida in search of a job, her mother leaves Garnet with her father’s family, whom she has never met, and they didn’t know about Garnet until she came to stay.
Aunt June (her father’s family names everyone after the months) believes everything happens for a reason, and she thinks Garnet has come to help her in her search for God. Each Sunday brings another church, where Aunt June and Garnet encounter faith healers, snake handlers, people who speak in tongues and Silver Shepherd, a 15-year-old youth minister who is the cutest boy this side of heaven. Garnet now has her own room, and a family—cousins, grandfather—things she has only dreamed of, living with only her mother.
Just as suddenly, Garnet’s life changes again, meeting her long lost father, finding Aunt June has cancer, and she must confront everything she has just learned about God, family and love—and if all things happen for a reason, find the reason for such a senseless accident.
Set in rural 1957 rural Virginia, A Month of Sundays is a heartwarming tale of faith, family, friendship and the strength that comes from having those three things.
Reviewed by Kathy Thornhill, Zauel Memorial Library
Recommended for grades 5 and up
