Hearts of Stone

 
Hannah Cameron is fourteen when her father joins the Union army, making enemies of the family's closest neighbors.  Less than a year later, Hannah, younger brother Jasper, and five-year-old twins Maude and Mary are left parentless when their mother dies during a bushwhacker raid on their Eastern Tennessee home.
 
As Hannah grapples with her new role as caretaker, she must also deal with the very real horrors of war. After leading her siblings in an arduous two-hundred-mile journey to Nashville, Hannah must regroup when she learns that Aunt Ellen, her only living relative, died of a fever six weeks earlier. Alone in the world and demoralized, the Cameron children live on the streets, doing everything they can to stay together.  Eventually they end up in a refugee camp, which is both a blessing and a curse, leading to even more trials for Hannah and her siblings.    
 
Inspired by a Civil War reenactment of a civilian refugee camp, award-winning author Kathleen Ernst has crafted an historically-accurate novel that gives insight into the deprivations of war, the fallacy of prejudice, and what it means to be a family. Hearts of Stone is as memorable as it is hard to put down.  Its plot has enough dramatic twists to keep even adult readers engaged.  And, while protagonist Hannah is Ernst’s most fully-drawn character, the other characters in the novel are far from one-dimensional.    
 
Young readers will have no problem relating to the novel's spunky, stalwart protagonist and the lessons that Hannah learns throughout the novel are very appropriate for its target audience.  In fact, Ernst seems to construct the story around Hannah’s revelations, making them some of the most moving moments of the novel.  
 
Of interest is Hannah's relationship with neighbor Ben, who is subtly cast as her soul mate and helpmeet.  In a novel for a different audience, Hannah and Ben would be star-crossed lovers.  In Hearts of Stone, however, their relationship is a testament to the importance of overcoming the divisiveness caused by things like the Civil War.  
 
In the end, Hannah’s coming of age is less about taking responsibility as it is learning how to forgive.  It is only when Hannah forgives her father for leaving -- and forgives Ben for siding with the Confederacy -- that she discovers the true meaning of family and the foundation on which to build a hearth and a home.