Shelterwood: A Novel

In the 1990s, a park ranger in Oklahoma meets a precocious and spirited girl in a foster home where she is too easily overlooked. At the other end of the century, a girl runs away from an abusive stepfather, bringing with her a Choctaw girl her father adopted.

The stories of these two will intersect, but more than that, they will show that some of the problems of the past have not been solved at all. They have only been shifted.

At times, Shelterwood is difficult to read. Wingate does a magnificent job bringing her young characters to life. It’s rare to find an author who can write children as the messy, complex people they truly are. The one drawback is that her adult characters come across as one-dimensional in comparison.

What is multi-dimensional in the book is Oklahoma itself.Shelterwood shows a deep love for the state that comes through on every page, from the spaces that have been left wild to the towns and cities and the people that dwell in them. Readers will come away with a broadened understanding of the state, both the good parts and the bad.