Amazon.com Review

Product Description
Ten-year-old Mary Mae loves to sing hymns with her Granny, go to Sunday School, and learn about trilobites. She has lots of questions about how the earth looked millions of years ago. Trouble is, Mary Mae's mother thinks it's wrong to believe the world is that old. Mama believes God created it six thousand years ago and she believes that nobody should teach Mary Mae otherwise. When Mary Mae starts taking her questions to church, asking how God created the earth in six days or how eight people could take care of animals on an ark, Mama puts her foot down: homeschooling. Mary Mae must decide where her loyalties lie: with science and Miss Sizemore, with God and Mama, or somewhere in the middle.

Amazon Exclusive: A Letter from Sandra Dutton, Author of *Mary Mae and the Gospel Truth*

Dear Amazon Reader,

Just for fun, I decided to make the puppets that appear in Mary Mae and the Gospel Truth. The kids in Mary Mae's Sunday School class used balsa wood for heads, but you can't get balsa wood any more--except in strips (the story takes place in 1988), so I used big blocks of florist foam. It carves easily with a kitchen knife. I sliced off all the hard edges, making it rounder, and dug out a finger hole with the point of the knife. I didn't want to carve too much because the kids in the story had no tools to do good carving and basically painted their characters' faces onto a flat side. I used what I carved away to make noses and ears, gluing them on, and then painting--first two coats of white latex, then the face, using acrylic paint.

You'll notice Mrs. Noah has blue hair. That's because it was the only color of yarn Mary Mae's mother had.

--Sandra Dutton

A Q&A with Sandra Dutton, Author of *Mary Mae and the Gospel Truth*

Q: Did you have the whole story in your head before you began writing Mary Mae and the Gospel Truth?

A: Quite the opposite. I never write from an outline, just fragments of ideas I hope to explore. In this case, I had an image of a mother and daughter racing along in a car distributing "Jesus Saves" stickers. Granny wasn’t in this image but she became a part of the story. I was hoping to use a puppet show. I didn't know where, but I love puppet shows and was hoping to work one in. The fossils I didn't discover until later. I had Mary Mae digging up a mastodon--which had actually been found a few blocks from my grade school in 1966--but I quickly decided smaller fossils were more interesting for my story. I didn't know much about the Cincinnati Arch until I started this, either. I'm never sure where I'm going, which is the way I like to write.

Q: This book takes place in DeSailles, Ohio. Where is DeSailles?

A: It's a fictional town in southwestern Ohio, based on my hometown of Norwood, a city of 25,000 surrounded by Cincinnati. The remarkable part of the area is its deep history--it rests on the Cincinnati Arch--a wide strata of Ordovician rock that was pushed up by geological forces. Ordovician rock is very old and usually buried, so what you have when this is exposed are ancient fossils--trilobites, for example, 450 million years old, which Mary Mae is digging up. These are pre-dinosaur--can you imagine that? The rocks that would hold the dinosaur bones have been worn away so what you have is something earlier.

Q: Did you hunt for fossils as a kid?

A: I was always aware of the seashells in the stones in our yards--you know, the rocks people use for tepping stones or a retaining wall or a fish pond. I remember seeing all that sealife and knowing that our area was once buried by sea water. But I was not aware these shells could be cut out with a chisel. We did not study fossils in school, even though they were all around us. Earth science and evolution were "off-limits" in science classes until the late sixties when textbook publishers began putting these subjects back in the science books. But I missed all that, going to school in the 1950s & '60s. Science for us consisted of plant and animal study, memorizing the bones of the body, and looking at weather patterns.

Q: Are the characters based on people you know?

A: Miss Sizemore is similar to a fifth grade teacher I had, Miss Behrman. She took us up to the highest point of our town, up by the water towers, and showed us where the Ohio River used to flow, before the glacier pushed it south. This was all on the spur of the moment. It gave me goose bumps, just the idea of reaching back into time and understanding how it was. She knew quite a bit about the history of the area, about corduroy roads and Indian paths and passed it on incidentally--not as part of our school lessons but as conversation. I loved that sort of thing. So yes, Miss Sizemore is based on Miss Behrman though we did not do any fossil digging in her class. The other characters are made up, though I once heard a talk by a minister with no arms. He visited our youth group and showed how he did various things, such as eating a doughnut off his big toe.

Q: Have you ever attended a church like the one in the story?

A: I grew up attending a Presbyterian church where my father was Sunday School superintendent and my mother taught the junior highs. They were also members of the church session. But I often visited other churches. For a time I went to a Baptist church with a friend and we rode the church bus together. Several years ago I saw a sign for a revival on a storefront church in my hometown and attended that service. Everyone, including the minister, had incredible voices, and they sang old gospel songs accompanied by electric guitar. I think that's where I got the idea for the Remnant Church of God.

Q: What is the significance of the quote from James Still's Sporty Creek at the beginning of the book: "I've heard they teach the earth is round," Saul said, "and such a claim goes against scripture."

A: It illustrates a fear of science, which is a theme throughout Mary Mae and the Gospel Truth. Mama, Shirley Whirly, and the Sunday School teacher, Brother Lucas, all have faith so shaky that if they hear something that contradicts scripture, their belief system is in danger of falling apart. Like Saul in the James Still story, they are completely dependent on a literal interpretation of scripture. They want to believe Genesis is fact. But the Bible was written thousands of years ago by people who were trying to make sense of their world, who did not have access to the information we have today. We now know that the universe was created not in six days but in billions of years, so our creation story needs to be modified. We can still appreciate the poetry of Genesis and its illustration of power and love. But Genesis is not a science lesson. Mary Mae realizes this.

Q: Do you believe stories are important?

A: Yes. I think we pick up behaviors from people in stories. I consider Mary Mae a good role model. She's uncomfortable with something she's been told and wants to know more. Yet her parents and the people at her church don’t want her asking questions. I'm happy she's a brave kid who rocks the boat. I want kids to see that even when everyone thinks they're wrong--and Mary Mae doesn't seem to have anyone in her corner at home and in church except Granny--that it's okay to voice your objections and be true to yourself, to listen to that little voice that says, "Hey, wait a minute. How can this be true?" or "What do I really believe?"

Q: What is the most important idea or thought you would like readers to have after reading your book?

A: That a fascination with science and our beginnings need not preclude belief in a higher power--God, the Universe, whatever you prefer to call it. Fundamentalists on either side (both religion and science) tell children they must make a choice. But Mary Mae puts them both together. Seeing a litte crab swimming around in a restaurant tank, she says, "I know just by watching that crab that my trilobite was alive, whether Mama thinks so or not. I know the Lord loved that trilobite as much as he loves this crab." And when she hears Miss Sizemore's description of the Big Bang, she says, "Sounds like Creation to me." That's what I would like readers to remember.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-7 Mary Mae has always accepted the conservative, religious teachings of her family, including a very literal interpretation of the Bible. However, the arrival of her granny and a new teacher cause the 10-year-old to question everything she has ever known. When Miss Sizemore starts to teach the class about fossils, Mary Mae begins asking questions of the adults in her life, and her mother decides it would be better for Mary Mae to be homeschooled. At no point in the story does the child ever question the existence of God she only sees God doing things in a different way. While her mother chooses to see science as an enemy to her beliefs, Mary Mae sees it as an extension of God's work. Miss Sizemore opens her up to a new world, where inquisitiveness is not only valued, but is key. Here the relationship with Granny is also crucial to the story she is always there to listen to Mary Mae and does not discourage her. This simple act of support gives the child the confidence she needs to not give up her quest for knowledge. This is a great story with valuable lessons. Told in an Appalachian dialect, it not only depicts real feelings about religion, but also shows the people behind them as good. It is both a lovely coming-of-age story and a lesson in respect between religion and science. Kerry Roeder, The Brearley School, New York City
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