"Weaving Roots" by Heather Wood

I loved so many characters in this book!  Main characters Betha and Colm, Betha's nephew Henry, and basically all of Colm's family.

Betha keeps house for her brother Seamus and is raising his illegitimate son Henry for him.  The little family has recently moved to Baltimore to get away from unkind neighbors who shunned Henry for his parentage.  Betha enrolls Henry in a free school nearby, where she meets Colm, who will be his teacher.

Colm and Betha are drawn to each other immediately.  They share Irish-American heritage, strong faith in God, and the desire to help those around them.  Colm is idolized a bit by Henry, whose father Seamus tends to ignore or dismiss him.  It's clear early on that Colm, Betha, and Henry could make a happy little family together, should Colm and Betha get married.

However, it takes three-quarters of the book for the characters to actually realize that Colm and Betha raising Henry is an option.  That's the only thing I disliked about the book -- in an era when people pretty commonly raised their nieces and nephews as their own, why did neither Colm nor Betha (nor Seamus) ever say, "Hey, here's a solution!"  Nobody even suggested it as a solution until the end of the book, not even to dismiss it as unworkable or raise objections to it.  Which drove me a little crazy.

Aside from that, this book was engrossing and uplifting.  I connected quickly with the characters and very much enjoyed their efforts to learn and grow in their faith while doing the work God has given them.  Much of the book's plot revolves around Colm's coming to realize he needs to be including the Bible in his classroom teaching, and the controversy that stirs up.  Wood includes historical notes about this exact controversy actually happening at that school in the 1820s, which was fascinating.  History really does run in cycles, and the more I learn about the 1820s, the more they remind me of the 1920s and the 2020s.

Full disclosure: I received an advance review copy of this book from the publisher.  All opinions here are my own and freely stated.

Particularly Good Bits:

"I'd appreciate understanding the difference between living by faith and living foolishly in the name of faith."

"The Lord doesn't give us control over each other's outcomes."

"Yes, there are things we can do, but for all our efforts, we can never change hearts.  He just didn't give us that power."

The Bible wasn't a neutral book, and the words in it didn't leave room for a passive response.  If a heart wasn't changed by it, it very likely would find itself in sharp opposition to it.

"...we're weaker when the devil gets us off by ourselves.  Like a predator trying to get his prey away from the herd."

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for discussions of Henry's illegitimacy and the use of a coarse slur to refer to him.  There are also veiled references to marital bedtime activities which are not explicit or titillating.  There is a brief mention of an adult striking a child and being emotionally abusive.  No bad language aside from the word 'bastard' used in its original context; little violence.