Quiver by Julia Watts (review)

"I know my family is different from other people's," says Libby, the oldest of six (soon to be seven) in her Quiverfull family, where she's a mostly obedient helpmate to her mother and disciple of her father. Then Zo and her family move in to the farmhouse next door, and the two teenagers tentatively embark on a friendship. Zo's casual, non-patriarchal family dynamics are eyeopening to Libby, and the gradual revelations that Zo identifies as genderfluid and dates girls rock her but don't sever the only local friendship available to either girl. When Libby's father insists Libby cut Zo off, however, Libby is faced with a choice about her commitments that sets off a series of life-changing events. Narration alternates between Libby and Zo, and Watts, author of Bulletin Blue Ribbon winner Finding H.F. (BCCB 1/02), gives both takes on life respect and problems (Zo's dad is a pot-stirrer, and there's a beautifully ironic fight between the two fathers about whether wives should be allowed to speak without permission in which neither wife participates). The girls' discussions of values and morality are straightforward and thoughtful, offering some provocative opportunities for readers to articulate their own possibly unquestioned views in discussion. The atmosphere is vivid: Watts' knowledge of country Tennessee shines through in the details of Walmart runs and ice cream treats and isolation that makes friendship across cultural boundaries a real necessity. It's no surprise that Libby (along with some other members of her family) eventually leaves the Quiverfull way, but readers will engage with her considered approach to and dissent from her lifeways. DS