Seed

March 2, 2015
In Heathfield's debut novel, 15-year-old Pearl leads a contented life in Seed, a bucolic, nature-worshipping commune. Though Pearl's naïve first-person narrative shows her complete trust in the cult leader, there are signs that something is wrongâas the book opens, Pearl is terrified when she is forced to spend the night in a dark underground chamber after getting her first period. When a family of new converts arrives, including Ellis, a skeptical teenage boy, Pearl initially resists Ellis's contention that life at Seed "is based on lies. And power. And fear.â But as events escalateâEllis suffers a mysterious accident, and one of Pearl's loved ones goes through a dangerous pregnancy without modern medicineâPearl and the other teenagers at Seed start to question their leader. Though Pearl is more spectator than actor at the horrific climax, her internal journey and growth show her to be far from passive. Well-developed secondary characters and Heathfield's willingness to do serious damage to central ones make this novel a powerful read. Ages 13âup. Agent: Veronique Baxter, David Higham Associates.

February 1, 2015
Pearl has grown up inside a cult and knows little about the real world.Pearl experiences her first period at 15; it terrifies her, as she has been told nothing about it. Pearl believes everything she's told at Seed. She's mostly happy there as she follows the cult's leader, Papa S. She yearns to know the identity of her real mother, hoping it's Elizabeth, who's now heavily pregnant again. However, all babies belong to the cult, so Pearl has no way to be sure. Although the cult members go to the market in a nearby town to sell their produce, Papa S. has warned them of the dangers of Outside (some quite preposterous). But when Ellis reluctantly joins the cult with his vulnerable mother and younger sister, his frank remarks cause Pearl to wonder, to doubt and finally to contemplate escape. With Pearl's present-tense narration, Heathfield paints convincing portraits of an extremely naive girl and of a cult from the inside, weaving in another narrative voice at the end of many chapters-perhaps Pearl's mother. The cult leader, rather like Jim Jones on a smaller scale, eventually takes all the women for himself and concocts bizarre punishments to keep the members submissive. Pearl's slow realization of the truth comes across as quite believable. An absorbing treatment of an ever interesting subject. (Fiction. 12-18)

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February 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-Seed is at the center of 15-year-old Pearl's life: it is the isolated family of which she is part, it is the house in which she lives, and it is the remote patch of land around that house where she sows and gathers crops for her family's sustenance. Pearl is happy at Seed. She does not often leave because according to Papa S., the leader of Pearl's family, Seed is pure and leaving risks contact with poisoned Outsiders who may taint Pearl's spiritual core. The teen knows Papa S. is truthful, but when three Outsiders unexpectedly join the family, the patriarch's word-and Pearl's entire reality-is challenged. Heathfield's debut novel is the first in a two-book series. Pearl's development over the course of the novel is realistic and relatable, and readers will become attached and even frustrated with the heroine. The smooth pacing and sophisticated yet age-appropriate style of the work lend credence to the story as it transforms the everyday activities of Seed into complex issues of physical and emotional abuse, budding self-esteem and increasing self-reliance, fear as a means of control, and belief as an expression of faith or as a means of deception. VERDICT Seed will hold readers' attention as the story's mood slowly changes and the work builds to an ultimately stunning conclusion.-Maggie Mason Smith, Clemson University R. M. Cooper Library, South Carolina

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2015
Grades 8-11 Pearl has lived all her life in Seed, a closed farm community of only a selected few. She believes the words of Papa S and what Nature tells him. When a family from the Outside moves into Seed, Pearl befriends Ellis and has forbidden feelings for him. She starts to listen to what Ellis tells her of the Outside and questions whether Seed is really the haven she's always thought it to be. As tragic accidents begin to occur, Pearl starts to plot her escape. The world building of Seed (for all intents and purposes, a cult) leaves a lot of unanswered questions. How did Seed start, why does it include so few people, and why are the kids all the same age? Nevertheless, Pearl grows throughout in a realistic way, offering a look at what it's like to live with no knowledge of the outside world. Because fairly little is answered when the story abruptly stops, interested readers will certainly be seeking out the sequel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)