Publication June 4, 2024-Random House-Ballentine-Historical Fiction, 368pp.

Book Summary

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours comes a sweeping novel inspired by the untold history of women pioneers who fought to protect children caught in the storm of land barons hungry for power and oil wealth.

Oklahoma, 1909. Eleven-year-old Olive Augusta Radley knows that her stepfather doesn’t have good intentions toward the two Choctaw girls boarded in their home as wards. When the older girl disappears, Ollie flees to the woods, taking six-year-old Nessa with her. Together they begin a perilous journey to the remote Winding Stair Mountains, the notorious territory of outlaws, treasure hunters, and desperate men. Along the way, Ollie and Nessa form an unlikely band with others like themselves, struggling to stay one step ahead of those who seek to exploit them . . . or worse.

Oklahoma, 1990. Law enforcement ranger Valerie Boren-Odell arrives at newly minted Horsethief Trail National Park seeking a quiet place to balance a career and single parenthood. But no sooner has Valerie reported for duty than she’s faced with local controversy over the park’s opening, a teenage hiker gone missing from one of the trails, and the long-hidden burial site of three children unearthed in a cave. Val’s quest for the truth wins an ally among the neighboring Choctaw Tribal Police but soon collides with old secrets and the tragic and deadly history of the land itself.

In this emotional and enveloping novel, Lisa Wingate traces the story of children abandoned by the law and the battle to see justice done. Amid times of deep conflict over who owns the land and its riches, Ollie and Val traverse the rugged and beautiful terrain, each leaving behind one life in search of another.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Shelterwood is a forestry term for older, larger trees that protect the smaller, younger growth beneath. Lisa Wingate’s Shelterwood slashes through that canopy shining a blinding light on the history of “rampant graft and mindboggling land grabs during the Oklahoma statehood era.”  

Wingate artfully weaves this little-known history in alternating timelines as she illuminates a mystery uncovered by a female park ranger involving the bones of “elf children.” Readers are immersed in the 1909 world of starving, indigenous “elf children” through Ollie and Nessa’s harrowing escape from harmful, greedy guardians and the community they struggle to create in the southeastern portion of Oklahoma known as the Winding Stairs. In 1990 Park Ranger, Val attempts to sort out the story of skeletal bones in a cave and the disappearance of three members of the same family.  Wingate’s narrative takes readers on trails though the woods of southeastern Oklahoma peppered with crisp descriptions as she lines steep grades through Horsethief Trail National Park with obstacles to the mystery by adding suspense step by step; an abandoned car, a missing teenager, a body found in the woods. Wingate’s orphans are wily, witty, and so loveable, readers will easily forgive their crimes and even cheer for their ingenious successes. Through experiences of the “elf children” readers will gain a new understanding of survival. Readers will also appreciate Officer Curtis’ relationship with Val and Charlie, a male character with high emotional intelligence.

This adventurous mystery through the woods of Oklahoma is really about the history of the tribal lands of the Cherokee, Creek, and Choctaw Nations, their legacy, and the oil found on the land allotments.  Another historical thread is the untold impact of Kate Barnard’s fight for child labor laws and compulsory education. Shelterwood, Lisa Wingate’s soulful, heartfelt tale, ties the past to the present through the history of indigenous children and the horrendous lives of our nations’ youngest before child labor laws.

Eye-opening. Redemptive.

Lisa Wingate is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Before We Were Yours, which has sold more than three million copies and been translated into over forty languages worldwide. The co-author, with Judy Christie, of the nonfiction book Before and After, Wingate is an Oklahoma Book Award finalist, a Goodreads Choice Award winner, and a Southern Book Prize winner. She was named a 2023 Distinguished Alumni of Oklahoma State University. She lives with her husband in Texas and Colorado. https://lisawingate.com/

From Lisa’s wonderful website: You will want to read more!

The most shocking stories hide in places we think we know. Despite countless field trips, museum tours, and history classes growing up in Oklahoma, I heard not a mention that the most powerful politician of the state’s fledgling years was—a woman? In an era when women couldn’t even vote? The true story of Kate Barnard, her 1909 investigation of bizarre reports of “elf children living in a hollow tree,” and her eventual discovery of the children’s true identity inspired the events in Shelterwood. Told through the eyes of two girls who flee a home filled with dangers to seek safety in the wilderness, Shelterwood follows a perilous journey to Oklahoma’s remote Winding Stair Mountains, where the girls soon discover they are not alone. I hope you will enjoy meeting Ollie and Nessa along with all the characters of Shelterwood, both real and imagined. To learn more, click here for a behind-the-scenes tour including historical photos, location photos, and materials for book clubs.