THE MAPMAKER'S CHILDREN: A Novel By Sarah McCoy

Publisher:  Crown
Expected Release Date:  May 5, 2015
Pages:  320
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Rating:  5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Book Description:  When Sarah Brown, daughter of abolitionist John Brown, realizes that her artistic talents may be able to help save the lives of slaves fleeing north, she becomes one of the Underground Railroad’s leading mapmakers, taking her cues from the slave code quilts and hiding her maps within her paintings. She boldly embraces this calling after being told the shocking news that she can’t bear children, but as the country steers toward bloody civil war, Sarah faces difficult sacrifices that could put all she loves in peril.
   Eden, a modern woman desperate to conceive a child with her husband, moves to an old house in the suburbs and discovers a porcelain head hidden in the root cellar—the remains of an Underground Railroad doll with an extraordinary past of secret messages, danger and deliverance. 
   Ingeniously plotted to a riveting end, Sarah and Eden’s woven lives connect the past to the present, forcing each of them to define courage, family, love, and legacy in a new way.

Wanda's Thoughts:  1859 – Harpers Ferry - A Negro insurrection has taken place where wagonloads of rifles were seized, with plans to distribute weapons to slaves for a national mutiny. Captain John Brown had been arrested as the leader of this uprising and was convicted of treason, murder, and conspiracy. 

Sarah Brown, daughter of John Brown, has a deep determination to follow the path of her father. She knows how deeply invested her father was in the Great Abolition calling. She would prove herself a significant contributor to the Underground Railroad by drawing maps. She was a talented artist who would be very useful to the cause. 

21st Century – New Charlestown, West Virginia – Eden Anderson finds a porcelain-doll’s head, with no body attached, in a root cellar. It appears to have been purposely removed. Why would someone remove a doll’s head?

And the story unfolds as these two stories come together and the author weaves true historical facts into fiction. 

Sarah McCoy’s captivating writing style is simply superb as she paints a picture with her words. The story is thoroughly researched and beautifully written, giving you a good feel for the time and place. My rating is 5 stars.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

About the Author:  SARAH McCOY is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of the novels The Baker's Daughter, The Time It Snowed In Puerto Rico and Grand Central. 

The Baker's Daughter was praised as "a beautiful heart-breaking gem of a novel" by Tatiana de Rosnay and "a thoughtful reading experience indeed" by Chris Bohjalian. The Baker's Daughter was a Doubleday/Literary Guild Book Club selection and a GoodreadsChoice Award Nominee for Best Historical Fiction in 2012. Sarah has taught writing at Old Dominion University and at the University of Texas at El Paso. The daughter of an army officer, her family was stationed in Germany during her childhood. She currently lives with her husband and dog, Gilbert, in El Paso, Texas, where she is working on her next novel (releasing in Summer 2015 from Crown).


For more information on Sarah and her writing, visit her website:http://sarahmccoy.com