Watching the Tree Limbs
Mary DeMuth
NavPress, Mar 2006, $12.99, 416 pp.
ISBN: 1576839265

She has no idea who her biological parents are, and up to three months ago nine year old Mara was raised by her Nanny Lynn on the family farm by Little Pine, Texas. When Nanny Lynn died, Mara moved to nearby Aurora to live with her only other known living relative Aunt Elma, who is dying from cancer.

Unlike Nanny Lynn who enjoyed doing things with her granddaughter, Aunt Elma expects Mara to find things to do. The preadolescent makes friends with Camilla and enjoys pretending she is Nancy Drew investigating her own past. Camilla warns her to beware of the bad people, and soon the bitter Mara observes first hand what her pal means when the thirteen year old malevolent General steals her childhood by raping her.

The child's life twists again when Aunt Elma dies, forcing Mara to move into an old mansion run by Mr. Winningham. She now knows that in spite of God's teachings, people do bad things; she also concludes as she learns more about her parents, that sometimes good can come out of bad, as Maranatha finds solace with the Lord, and with him at her side she finds the courage to confront her past and her present.

This is a powerful inspirational character study that takes the audience inside the souls of several residents of a small town Texas in the late 1970's, but especially the beleaguered heroine, whose lament and subsequent "redemption" will touch the hearts of the audience. Mara believes she caused the deaths of her family members including her mom, and feels she has no adult to turn to even when bruises on her body prove someone is abusing her; instead she finds Jesus, who gives her the inspiration to live. Mary DeMuth provides a deep puissant Inspirational fiction of salvation.