Beyond the Cradle is a Literary Fiction novel that rests easily in the hands of teen readers, and adults alike. The story opens in the mid-nineteen-eighties, extends into the early nineties, and briefly scrolls back into the forties. Its narrator, Robyn Thomas, glides through several of the world’s largest cities, but only one place captures her soul, a mountain community in West Virginia. It’s not so much the place that moves her, as the people who’ve been influenced by the place over generations; for Robyn, one person stands out in particular, Samantha Sticker.
The novel encompasses two coming of age stories. In a nutshell, there are two homeschooling families who meet on a mountain in West Virginia. Despite worldview and lifestyle differences the family girls are thrilled with one another. Robyn, the younger by three years, and newly departed from NYC’s pecking order, seeks to control the freest spirit dust has ever covered in bodily form, but somehow she cannot manage the capture. That tilts her limited patience at practically every turn and causes some major frustrations to erupt–that is, unless she’s getting her way in the moment. Meanwhile, Samantha continues to occupy her life in amazing grace. Her feet are anchored in terra firma, while she soars above it. You’ll find out how truly unique Samantha Sticker is just by being the girl God created her to be. Every molecule within her is united with God, but she remains a mountain girl, who simply knows her identity in both the worlds she occupies.
Heart-warming truths run throughout the story, such as, the beauty we can find in family relationships and friendships; the rewards of practicing sexual abstinence before marriage; the sense of wonder discovered through and within nature; how homeschooling is an honored way of life; and how life choices can add or detract from wisdom’s song. Movements within the storyline address the various traps we are prone to enter, mostly unaware, and how God gently comes alongside to uncover those places, if our hearts yearn for true freedom while we’re still here on this cradle, called earth. This story [has] a unique voice and tone. It’s a delight to the senses and the soul. CHRIS FABRY, award-winning author of War Room and Dogwood.
