Starred Review for The Land of Decoration

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Greace McCleen's imaginiative debut, THE LAND OF DECORATION, is a quietly passionate story of a girl and her faith.

Ten-year-old Judith McPherson is persecuted at school for her beliefs and is struggling with her distant, devout father at home. Judith finds solace in a miniature model of the Promised Land that she has constructed in her room from collected discarded scraps. When a strike threatens her father's factory job, and the taunting at school slips into dangerous territory, Judith makes a miracle that solidifies her blossoming conviction that she is God's chosen instrument.

"McCleen adroitly combines cinematic momentum with intuitive description in this novel about the consequences of faith and what happens when we believe that we have the power to effectuate change." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)

School Library Journal added THE LAND OF DECORATION to their "Adult Books 4 Teens" column and said, "The paradoxical relationship between power and powerlessness; the richly interconnected worlds of faith and imagination; and the tragic delicacy of the relationships between single parents and their children [...] These are enormous themes for a first-time novelist, but in McCleen’s deft hands they dovetail naturally into one another."

And Shelf Awareness conducted a nice interview with novelist and musician McCleen view here.

THE LAND OF DECORATION is now available from Holt.