Written by Sandra Dutton
Published by Houghton Mifflin, 2010
ISBN 9780547249667

Mary Mae Krebs is a curious ten-year-old. Deeply involved in Sunday School at her church, she is earnest about helping her mother and grandmother evangelize in a nearby town. Mary Mae is intrigued by the puppet play about the seven days of creation that her Sunday School class makes from scratch. She is Mrs. Noah, and she has questions. How did eight people feed twenty-thousand animals? What did it smell like in the ark? Where did all the animal feed come from?

At school, Miss Sizemore is teaching the geology of the Ohio River Valley. She takes the students on a field trip to search for trilobites, crinoids, and brachiopods. Mary Mae is confused. Her mother’s literal interpretation of the Bible reveals that the earth is 6,000 years old, but Miss Sizemore says these fossils were caught in limestone five hundred million years ago. How can both be true?

When Mary Mae’s mother realizes her own beliefs are being challenged in school, she chooses to homeschool her daughter.

The author poses her own questions and allows Mary Mae to find practical answers, all the while honoring religious and scientific beliefs. As the point-of-view character, Mary Mae is earnest, loyal, and wanting to do the right thing, yet she’s determined to honor her understanding of this mystifying world. With an ultimately satisfying conclusion, this is a good choice for readers who have questions of their own.

—Sydney Lange, children’s literature enthusiast