Uncertain Glory

Uncertain Glory

Juvenile historical fiction
My mother was a young woman when the unthinkable happened. In a
day that would live in infamy, according to President Roosevelt, Japan
attacked Pearl Harbor, plunging America into World War II. Until her
death she remembered those dark days of fear and uncertainty when the
world probably seemed to be going to Hell in a handbasket. In her
Uncertain Glory, Lea Wait brings readers to an earlier historical
crisis--the brink of the Civil War. Many of her characters, including
narrator Joe, were real people back in the day.
Wait gives us a real sense of who Joe is in her first
paragraph: "Reverend Merrill, up to the congregational church, says
God has our lives all planned out for us. And I'll tell you: I'm
just Joe Wood, from a little town in Maine. I figger I'm not exactly
in a position to question what God has in mind. But between you and
me, sometimes those plans of his are pretty hard to make sense of."
Joe may consider himself insignificant. These days we'd
consider him anything but. He has more responsibility, at the age of
fourteen, than many adults do now. He publishes his own newspaper. A
debt he took on when he started his operation is coming due with no
guarantee he can make it. He also must help his mom with her store
since his dad, grief stricken over his older son's death, isn't always
up to it. His two workers pose challenges of their own.
Oh, yeah, there's also a very ypung spiritualist in town. Her
uncle who claims custody claims she can contact deceased loved ones.
Some folks devoutly and desperately believe; some claim she's nothing
but a fraud. Joe is caught right in the middle.
Joe is far from the only one finding God's will hard to
determine. As news slowly travels from the South by telegraph, people
wonder how this will effect their lives, their families, their
community, and even their very young country. For a book about a teen
at an important turning point in his country's history, you can't do
better than Uncertain Glory.
On a personal note, I am enjoying my own personal snow day. Nope,
there is not a flake of snow coming down. But I have so many things
to catch up on (including this blog) that when my ride to church
couldn't happen I had this giddy, exhilirating, anything is possible
feeling. Breathing space. It is so sunny out I am doing most of my
catch up work outside on my glider. Heavenly.
A great big shout out goes out to all Mainers taking advantage of
these Indian summer days.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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