Janice Smith

In true, award winning author, Lisa Wingate fashion, she ran across an old newspaper clipping that mentioned a woman that found "elf children living in a hollow tree". This peaked her interest, leading to her new novel titled Shelterwood. It is set in the Winding Stair Mountain area in Southern Oklahoma. It tells the story of how orphaned Native American children were made the wards of court appointed men that were land grabbers. Having total court-sanctioned control over these children, they stole their land rights. Many of these children were abused and abandoned or ran away, raising themselves in the woods. A tiny woman named Kate Barnard, who was newly elected commissioner of charities and corrections tried to put a stop to it and brought it to light! This storyline, set in 1909, tells the tale of some of these children and corresponds with another storyline set in 1990 in the same area, where a park ranger heard about human remains being found in a cave in the area and sets out to find where they came from. Lisa's brilliant story telling and her diligence to accurately relay historic details is alive and well in this new novel! A must read for all Wingate fans and a great introduction to her work for new ones!