Out of the Shadows
by Sarah Singleton

    OUT OF THE SHADOWS by Sarah Singleton
    Category:  Fantasy
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 6+
    Release Date:  10/20/08
    Publisher:  Clarion
    Reviewed by:  Cat
    Rating:  5 Stars


    While tending to the saint's shrine in the woods near her house one November day, thirteen-year-old Elizabeth Dyer
    comes across a Green Girl.

    Isabella Leland's bones have been at rest in the human world for the past three hundred years, while the rest of her
    has lived among the Crow People. The world in which she wakes is very different from the one Isabelle once knew.
    A Protestant queen now resides on the throne and practitioners of Catholicism, like Elizabeth and her family, have
    been forced into practicing their faith in shadow, lest they jailed or even worse.

    The stakes are raised when Elizabeth's older brother secrets an exiled priest from Oxford into the Dyer home for
    safekeeping. With Queen Elizabeth's priest-hunting spy (Kit Merrivale) hovering about the estate of Spirit Hill, where
    Elizabeth serves the Lady Catherine Melibourne, returning home to aide her family becomes impossible. Elizabeth
    has no choice but to ask for help from mysterious Isabelle, who has ventured beyond the forest in search of her new
    friend.

    Both girls must reach out to overcome the threats and fears inherent to life as outsiders, if they want to survive this
    ordeal.

    I thoroughly enjoyed OUT OF THE SHADOWS. Sarah Singleton seamlessly mixes folklore, history, and theology
    without once sacrificing character or plot development. Ms. Singleton gives the perfect amount of detail in all three
    subjects so we're never overwhelmed by too much information.  

    While the greater themes of acceptance, worlds of larger possibilities, life as an individual on the fringes of
    acceptable society, and trust resonate throughout the text, the heart of this novel is a friendship between its two
    young girls and the loneliness it fills.