The Moonlight School. Suzanne Woods Fisher. 2021. [February] 320 pages. [Source: Review copy]
First sentence (from the prologue): [January 1899] Lucy Wilson shifted on the wooden bench, hardly aware of the afternoon chill as she waited for Father to return to the station. She was halfway through Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, and she sensed a niggling worry about sister Beth’s fragile health.
First sentence (from chapter one: [March 1911] The train jerked and jolted as it rumbled out of the station. Lucy Wilson stared out the window, watching her neat and tidy world fade into the distance.
Do you love Christy by Catherine Marshall? Have you read Christy a hundred times? Have you ever wished for MORE books like Christy? The Moonlight School is the book you've been waiting years for.
Lucy Wilson is nervous but excited to be going to visit (so she thinks) her cousin, Cora Wilson Stewart. She'll be acting as her assistant. She envisions the position like a special secretary. She wasn't expecting to be making the rounds in the community acting as a scribe. Reading folks' letters aloud and taking down their replies and mailing them. Lucy didn't realize that nearly all the adults in this rural mountain community are illiterate. There are schools for the children--but not for the adults.
As Lucy makes a home for herself in Rowan County, she meets a lot of people and learns valuable lessons....
Cora Wilson Stewart was a real woman. She really did start MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS to teach adults how to read and write. School was held in the evening between 7PM and 9PM for six weeks at a time. (I believe around September?) Her program was a success. Her work made a difference and had an impact.
I don't know that it is a complaint so much as a "warning" of sorts to other readers: don't expect the moonlight school to make an appearance until the book is nearly over. Rest assured it will be coming. But it will be a while. Lucy has a lot of life lessons to learn before the book can turn to history and the community.
I did love the story. I loved the characters. I loved the community.
Quotes:
Cora put her pen down and leaned back in her chair. “It takes an effort of the imagination to put oneself in the place of the illiterate. To picture what life is like for one who must get all his information by ear. If a man cannot read or write or vote, he cannot speak. He is mute. He is forgotten. You might think it’s a pity they cannot read, but the real tragedy is they cannot speak.” She picked up her pen. “That, Lucy, is the real tragedy of the twentieth century.”
“Empty graves . . . are exactly why the Lord Jesus went to the cross and rose again. To offer each one of us a chance for an empty grave.” He tilted his head. “‘Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.’” He looked Lucy straight in the eyes. “Wherever your sister Charlotte may be, she is not alone. She’s never been alone. The Lord is with her.” He grinned. “Amen. Sermon over.”
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