Introduction

A young girl searches for a mother's love amid unfolding secrets, in this riveting and emotionally complex novel from acclaimed author Sherri Wood Emmons.

The summer that her father falls in love with Emma, Jenny Bohner is just turning eleven. Jenny was three when her mother died, and since then Brannon Bohner has traveled with his daughter from one seasonal job to another, picking up girlfriends along the way. Cara, Ami, Trish--all were sweet and kind, but none ever stayed for long. Somehow Emma is different, traveling with them from Idaho to Kentucky, filling Jenny with hopes of a real family at last.

Emma's warmth and optimism are contagious, defusing Brannon's flashes of temper and making their first weeks together everything Jenny has dreamed of. Yet something still troubles her, surfacing through years of memories--tempting her from within boxes Jenny has been told never to touch, filled with hidden mementoes from long ago. And somewhere among them Jenny will find answers that compel her to choose--between the home she longs for, the love she craves, and the hard truth she can no longer ignore. . .

Praise for the novels of Sherri Wood Emmons

The Weight of Small Things
"Emmons writes beautifully about women, friendship and choices, and engagingly chronicles the long friendship that becomes a mutual lifeline." --The Sunday Star Ledger

The Sometimes Daughter
"Emmons has a keen grasp of the difficulties of mother-daughter dynamics. . .an intimate story." --Publishers Weekly

"Teens who appreciated Lauren Myracle's Bliss or autobiographies by Augusten Burroughs and Jeannette Walls of dysfunctional family survivors should also enjoy this novel." –School Library Journal

Prayers and Lies
"A rich story of the triumph of love and decency." –Sandra Dallas, author of Prayers for Sale

"A strong debut. . .Emmons has a rich voice that pairs well with the earthy setting. . .and the characters are wonderfully drawn." –Publishers Weekly

"Surely Sherri Wood Emmons is the freshest new voice I've read in a long while. Read Prayers and Lies, and hold on tight! You are in for an unforgettable literary ride!" --Ann Hood, author of The Red Thread

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Excerpt

Chapter 1

Jenny

I remember how it started, the beginning of the end. Of course I
didn’t know it then.
We were in southern Idaho and it was July. Daddy was working for the summer at a little campground that sat in a broad, grassy prairie between two mountain ranges. It was a nice place, hot and dry so you always had to carry a bottle of water with you. A curvy, slow-moving river ran just east of the campground, and lots of geese and ducks lived there. Sometimes we saw wild elk in the fields. Once at the river, I even saw a mother moose with her baby, standing on spindly legs in the water. If I’d had a camera, I would have taken a picture of them. I didn’t have a camera, but I still re- member how the mother glared at me as she stepped between Daddy and me and her baby. She was protecting him, I guess. That’s what mothers are supposed to do. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1. Zella Fay tells Emma that Brannon is carrying a lot of baggage. Are there any red flags in Brannon’s behavior in Idaho that Emma misses? Is she foolish to leave Idaho with Brannon and Jenny? Have you ever taken a risk that big? Did that risk pay off, or not?

2. Emma grew up in the Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints community, which upholds the legitimacy of polygamy. Do you believe polygamous marriage can ever be okay, or is it fundamentally wrong?

3. Angel asks Emma if she thinks “white folks are the only ones who can hate,” and says her father hated white people because of the way he had been treated in the South under Jim Crow. Does that hatred make Angel’s father a racist? Or do you agree with filmmaker Spike Lee, who said in a 1991 interview with Playboy magazine, “Black people can’t be racist. Racism is an institution.”?

4. What role does Jasper Rigby play in the story? Is there hope for his becoming a better man than his father, or has his upbringing sealed his fate?

5. After Mrs. Figg’s death, Lashaundra tells Jenny that people who don’t believe in God probably go to hell. Do you believe in heaven and hell? Is belief in God a prerequisite to heaven?

6. Sister Frances tells Emma that all churches are human creations, but she still believes in God. Does that jibe with your experience of church? Why or why not?

7. Lorelei tells Emma that their meeting at Loretto is “a Godthing.” Is that something you believe in, or is their meeting simply a lucky happenstance? Have you ever had an experience you would call a God-thing?

8. Jenny comes to believe that Emma is different from all of her previous “stepmothers.” Yet it’s Jenny’s actions that precipitate their flight from Brannon. Is Emma really different from her predecessors, or has Jenny simply become old enough to start asking questions about her father’s life?

9. Is Emma right to accept the reward money offered by Ami Gordon’s family? Or does it seem like she is profiting from Brannon’s crimes? Would you feel comfortable accepting such a reward? Why or why not?

10. Given Brannon’s childhood experiences, is he simply a product of terrible circumstance? Does his background in any way mitigate his crimes? Is he in any way a sympathetic character?

11. Emma’s first marriage was to an abusive man. After she left him, she tells Jenny, she followed a man from Salt Lake City to Rexburg, Idaho, because she thought he was “really nice.” But he turned out to be not a good guy. Finally, she marries Brannon, who also has an abusive history. What in her background leads Emma into one abusive relationship after another? Is she doomed to keep repeating that pattern?

12. Jenny has seen her father’s uncontrolled anger, and even episodes of violence. Is she in any way complicit in Brannon’s crimes? Does she have a responsibility to warn Emma, or is she simply too young to be accountable?

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