1. Research the life of Ann Lee in greater detail than Yolen provides in her historical note. How did Lee gain her following? How extensive a movement was the group she founded?

What other Shakers held leading roles?

2. Consider the Shaker songs, chants, and sayings that appear in the novel. Based upon these, what virtues or values did the Shakers exalt? Did they actually practice them? Do any have value for today's world?

3. Is the novel best classified as a romance? As a coming-of-age story?

As fictionalized religious or social history? Explain.

4. Does Sarah change in the course of the novel? Include comments about Sarah's reactions to the Mountain Eve and Feast at the ages of six and fourteen (Chapter 20), and to the shouts of "woe" when she hears "for the first time, the silence that she carried within" (end, Chapter...