Saving Cicadas

September 21, 2009
This beguiling, inspirational family-first tale from Lowcountry native Seitz (A Hundred Years of Happiness
) follows the revelatory and haunting journey of a single mother from South Carolina who discovers she's pregnant and needs to clear her head to plan her next step. Priscilla Lynn Macy quits her job and hits the road with her daughters, Rainey Dae, 17, who has Down syndrome, and Janie Doe, her precocious eight-year-old. Grandma Mona's in the backseat with her husband, “Poppy” Grayson. Janie's and Grandma Mona's perspectives on Priscilla's situation invigorate Seitz's folksy prose as Priscilla looks for Harlan Bradfield, Janie's dad, who took off one day on his motorcycle. The tribe ends up at the Macy ancestral home in Forest Pines, S.C., where Priscilla reconnects with her half-brother, Pastor Fritz Rosier, who helps her make peace with past mistakes and to decide about the future. Seitz has a gift for creating wonderful characters, especially the young girls, and while she's strident in her antiabortion stance, this tale's spooky sweet dénouement includes a magical twist about spirited little Janie that's marvelously memorable.

November 1, 2009
When single mother Priscilla finds herself unexpectedly pregnant, she packs eight-year-old Janie and 17-year-old, special-needs Rainey Dae along with Poppy and Grandma Mona into the car and heads home to Forest Pines, SC. VERDICT For readers who enjoy Southern family stories and Seitz's other novels ("The Spirit of Sweetgrace; Trouble the Water; A Hundred Years of Happiness").

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.