MY RATING: 5 of 5 stars
The author, Sharlee Glenn, of Beyond the Green based the story from her personal experience when their family temporarily adopted, Gina, a five-month-old American Indian. As stated in the author’s note, before 1978, the government took away neglected or abused children from the Native Indians; they were cared for and even adopted by non-Indian families. This caused a lot of problems because the tradition and language were soon forgotten once they were raised by those who are not American Indians; hence the Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978 to be able to protect and maintain the culture of the tribe/s.
Similar to the author’s real-life story, this fiction novel narrates the story of the Twitchell family from Uintah Basin, Utah who adopted a five-month-old American Indian baby named Chipeta in 1975. Irene Uncarrow, the biological mother of the baby was seen drunk in a bar while the baby was left inside the car in Beaumont. The social worker reached out to the Twitchells to care for the innocent baby. After four years and because of the ratification of ICWA, the social worker got in touch with them to inform that the real mother, Irene, wants to get her child again.
The possibility of Chipeta, or was later named Dorinda or Dori by their family, being taken away wasn’t easy for the Twitchells especially to Britta, the storyteller and one of the closes to Dori. She and Cally attempted several ways to avoid what they were dreading, but whatever happened, they can’t avoid the inevitable.
Beyond the Green is a poignant novel that will make one think of the power of love; on how much one will do anything just to prove it; the enormity of forgiveness and acceptance, and that proximity is not a factor to show one’s love and care.
