Sadie Rose and the Double Secret

Oh, the secret must be dreadful! She laughed under her breath. “I’ll learn the secret,” she whispered under her breath. “And Mitch will be very, very sorry for what he made me do.”

Book:Sadie Rose and the Double Secret (Sadie Rose Adventure, Book 4) by Hilda Stahl, Crossway Books, 1990

Genre: Historical Fiction

Target Audience: Girls 10-14

Subjects: Secrets, Temptation, Revenge, Jealousy

Summary: Oh how she longs for a piece of paper of her own! She would write down what Levi did for her so she could remember it for all time! It’s hard to not be jealous of Mitch and his family. They can afford as much paper as they want. When a piece of paper gets a small tear Mitch is ready to just crumble it up and throw it away. So when Mitch offers a trade for a whole stack of papers Sadie finds it extremely hard to resist the temptation and finally gives in, doing what she knows full well is wrong. Now she’s overwhelmed with guilt for her decision and fear that someone will find out her horrible secret. She’s also filled with anger at Mitch for “making” her do this! She’s not the only one struggling with the Hepford family though. Her stepdad is getting pretty jealous of all the nice things Zane keeps giving their family… particularly his wife! Before long it seems their whole family is becoming torn apart!

Notes: Double Secret is the fourth of the Sadie Rose Adventures. This series tells of a twelve year old girl’s first year living in the Nebraska sandhills during the pioneer days. Sadie has a knack for getting into danger. The series focuses a lot on family relationships as Sadie lives with her mother, stepdad, older sister, older brother, younger sister and younger brother. It also focuses a lot on the hopes and dreams of marriage for the young girls. The culture was for girls to marry quite young so the characters, especially Sadie’s older sister focus heavily on trying to find a good husband. There is also a strong thread of forgiveness and the importance of telling the truth running through the series.

In this fourth book Sadie still hasn’t figured out how to forgive those who hurt her or how to deal with her guilt. She lets her guilt over her poor decision turn into out of control anger at the one who offered her the temptation in the first place even though he never once forced her. He simply offered her a choice. Sadie is challenged to show kindness, being reminded of Ephesians 4:32 but in her anger wants to refuse to do it. She gets a good example when her stepfather takes his concern to God, spending time in prayer, pouring out his heart to his Heavenly Father and finding peace as well as strength to do what he knows is right.

Spiritual Content Recommendation Scale: 5/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

Ephesians 4:32 - Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.