Reviewed by: Kristie Leigh Maguire, MyShelf.com
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"Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered" takes us into the heart and lives of a family whose roots extend deep into the red soil of Utah - told only as the author, Carolyn Howard-Johnson, can tell it. Howard-Johnson is a one-of-a-kind writer and her novels will be remembered long after we are gone. She has a way of turning what would normally be just an ordinary story into a polished gem that we will cherish and take out of our treasure chest to examine again and again.

"Harkening" is made up of seventeen stories, each of them excellent and unique. I would be hard-pressed to pick a favorite among them. If forced to choose, I would have to go with two of them: Child's Play and Remembering Winter.

Child's Play gives us a look at the prejudice in this world against anyone who is different from others in their surroundings, told through the eyes of an innocent child. The hurt and confusion of this innocent child radiates from the pages.

Remembering Winter is another look at this same innocent child who just does not fit into the world in which she finds herself. As Howard-Johnson tells it, "There was a child in the central portion of my brain who was new in school. New in town. She had come from a different place, a different background, and a different religion. She did not fit into the frame but there she was."

Be sure to add "Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered" to your list of favorite books - right up there beside Howard-Johnson's first novel, This Is The Place. I know that I will.

*****
Kristie Leigh Maguire is the author of Emails from the Edge (The Life of an Expatriate Wife) and co-author along with Mark Haeuser of No Lady and Her Tramp; Contributor to anthologies Calliope's Mousepad: Women Writers Online; Musings: Authors Do It Write! and NUW Roads Travelled. Contributor to cookbooks Now We're Cooking! 43 Authors in the Kitchen and Cooking By The Book.