Wow, this book is absolutely wonderful, loving, brave, and eye opening, with beautifully painted scenes of the mountains and farms as a backdrop. Beyond the Green, by Sharlee Glenn, tells the tale of a family giving up its most prized possession, their youngest child. The story, told through the eyes of the middle child, Britta, an eleven year old Mormon girl living on a family farm in the Uintah Basin, Utah in the late 1970s, centers on the youngest child, Dori, who has been living with the family since she was five months old and is now four. Her biological mother, Irene, member fo the Uintah tribe has gotten sober and wants her child back. Britta spends most of the book devising plans on how to keep Dori from Irene as well as trying to work through her feelings about doing what she knows is right and her prejudices about certain individuals. While Britta is a stereotypical eleven year old with stereotypical eleven year old farm girl problems (not wanting to do chores, annoying siblings) her life is anything but.
Sharlee Glenn has captured all the emotions of the story so well and the author’s note explains why. This book touches a lot of different themes that can help expose readers to new topics: multi-racial families, foster care, the Indian Child Welfare Act, farming communities, Mormonism, and stereotypes that existed and continue to exist about Native Americans. I strongly recommend Beyond the Green for both children and adults.