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About The Chosen One
Product description Thirteen-year-old Kyra has grown up in an isolated community without questioning the fact that her father has three wives and she has twenty brothers and sisters, with two more on the way. That is, without questioning them much---if you don’t count her secret visits to the Mobile Library on Wheels to read forbidden books, or her meetings with Joshua, the boy she hopes to choose for herself instead of having a man chosen for her. But when the Prophet decrees that she must marry her sixty-year-old uncle---who already has six wives---Kyra must make a desperate choice in the face of violence and her own fears of losing her family forever. Carol Lynch Williams, a four-time winner of the Utah Original Writing Competition and the winner of Nebraska’s Golden Sower Award and the PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship, grew up in Florida but now lives in Utah with her husband and seven children. She has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults, and helped develop the conference on Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers at Brigham Young University. An American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults A YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers Recommended by The New England Children's Booksellers Association Thirteen year-old Kyra has grown up in an isolated polygamous community without questioning her father’s three wives and her twenty brothers and sisters. But she has started to wonder if her life could be different. Determined to follow her heart, Kyra secretly visits the Mobile Library on Wheels to read forbidden books. At night, she meets with a boy, one she hopes to choose for herself instead of having a man chosen for her. But the Prophet decrees that Kyra must marry her own uncle, a 60-year-old man who already has six wives. Though she faces danger and is afraid she will lose her family, Kyra must make a desperate choice before her future is decided by the sect. "Intensely gripping and grippingly intense . . . Kyra's terrible dilemma—escaping her fate means betraying her family—is heartbreakingly real, and the final scenes are riveting and suspenseful."— Kirkus Reviews "Intensely gripping and grippingly intense . . . Kyra's terrible dilemma—escaping her fate means betraying her family—is heartbreakingly real, and the final scenes are riveting and suspenseful."— Kirkus Reviews"This is a heart pounder, and readers will be held, especially as the danger escalates. Williams' portrayals of the family are sharp, but what's most interesting about this book is how the yearnings and fears of a character so far from what most YAs know will still seem familiar and close."— Ilene Cooper, Booklist "This book will shock and anger you, and most importantly, freak you out because it is based on a real-life story. The book quickly moves from peaceful moments on the compound to fast-paced action as Kyra learns about the very dark side of The Chosen Ones. This book is thought provoking and compelling and you will be frantically flipping the pages until you discover Kyra's fate."— Justine Magazine “I believed the characters and found Kyra's inner struggles very authentic . . . Even secondary characters emerge as real as they engage with Kyra and each other. The conflicts are vivid and well delineated—and pretty scary and timely. But it also respects the close and loving connections that clearly draw the people of faith together. Writing about religion in books for teens is the final frontier and I'm glad she tackled the topic—and with a strong story that will get kids thinking and talking.”— Sylvia M. Vardell, Ph.D., Professor, School of Library & Information Studies, Texas Woman's University and author of Children’s Literature in Action: A Librarian’s Guide“In powerful, understated prose, Williams writes a compelling view of a dark and disturbing world where the leader of a polygamous sect can simultaneously preach good and practice evil. But its real power comes from seeing this walled-off world through the eyes of thirteen-year-old Kyra Carlson, who desperately wants to be good yet realizes that the demand for heavenly obedience is only a mask for earthly control. No one can get inside the head and heart of a 13-year-old girl better than Carol Lynch Williams, and I mean no one. Kyra is a complex and completely believable mix of loving daughter, devoted big sister, boy-smitten teenager, terrified bride-to-be (within weeks she will be given to her 60-year-old uncle as his seventh wife), and reluctant heroine who shows there is always hope. Knowing her is worth the whole trip.”— James S. Jacobs, Professor of Children's Literature, Brigham Young University and co-author of Children's Literature, Briefly"In the Compound, in the belly of the Temple, God has revealed to the Prophet Child that 14 year-old Kyra is to wed her father’s older brother, Uncle Hyrum. She will be his seventh wife in the Lord. This leads to rebellion as Kyra loves Joshua. What is marriage without love or trust? The Chosen One is a modern day ‘Romeo and Juliet’ set in the religious compound controlled by the Prophet Child. Choices have to be made, but at what sacrifice? A compelling novel filled with family loyalty, love, tragedy, drama and adventure."— Terry Young, West Jefferson High School, Harvey, Louisiana“A chilling and thought-provoking story about what happens when religion turns 'evil' and the 'good' is in those who try to escape it. This is Kyra's story. Let her into your heart. You will never forget her."— Pat Scales, Director of Library Services, the South Carolina Governor’s School for Arts and Humanities; and President, Association for Library Service to Children"Carol Lynch Williams’ chilling novel of life in a polygamous sect is both harrowing in its unsparing realism and hopeful in its reaffirmation of the power that books and reading have to change and redeem lives at risk. An important book, sure to provoke spirited discussion."— Michael Cart, former president, Young Adult Library Services Association“ The Chosen One makes the heart race, the teeth grind, and the brow bead up in sweat. Carol Lynch Williams presents a first-person narrative that gallops just behind—or perhaps in advance of—contemporary headlines about the manipulation of the innocent. I could choose no other book or newspaper until I had finished the final page."— Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and A Lion Among Men“A powerful and heartbreaking novel of love and hope. One girl's poignant journey as she struggles to find herself and, ultimately, the truth.”— Meg Cabot, author of The Princess Diaries and Airhead“ The Chosen One is absolutely riveting and perfectly formed. I had planned to read just a few pages one evening before bed, and I ended up staying awake until four in the morning to finish it! It’s a wonderful book.”— Cynthia Kadohata, winner of the 2005 Newbery Medal for Kira-Kira“In this extraordinary story, Carol Lynch Williams probes the deepest wells of the heart. Against the intertwining prism of From School Library Journal Grade 7 Up–In this thriller, 13-year-old Kyra lives in an isolated polygamist cult. Life in the compound is as dry as the surrounding desert, more confining than the chain-link fence on its perimeter. But Kyra finds small freedoms despite the tightly controlled communal environment and is able to slip outside to wander the desert. There she chances upon a friendly book-mobile driver who opens the world of children's literature to her. Kyra even begins a flirtation with her classmate, Joshua, a dangerous sin for which they will both pay dearly. The brutal leader, Prophet Childs, has plans for Kyra and will brook no disobedience. He assigns her to be the seventh wife of her own 60-year-old uncle. Repelled, she resists. She and Joshua are badly beaten and she is told that other young people have been killed for taking a similarly defiant stand. Kyra's loving father is powerless to help her and counsels her to accept her fate, but she cannot. The story ends in a high-speed chase with the Prophet's goons gunning for her as she improbably races toward freedom in the blood-spattered book mobile. Has the friendly driver been killed on her account? Is anyone looking for him? What retribution will be taken on her family and what kind of a life lies ahead for her? These unsettling questions are not addressed, but these omissions do not diminish the relief of her successful escape. For a more layered examination of the internal as well as external struggles of a young teen coming of age in a polygamist community, see Shelley Hrdlitschka's Sister Wife (Orca, 2008). –Carolyn Lehman, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Taking a story “ripped from the headlines,” Williams looks inside a polygamist cult and the dangers it poses for one girl. Kyra and her father, three mothers, and 20 siblings live in an isolated community under the thumb of a prophet, who controls every aspect of his apostles’ lives. The most shocking intrusion of all comes when the prophet decrees that Kyra is to become the wife of her 60-year-old uncle. A secret patron of a local mobile library, Kyra knows there’s a world away from the compound she might escape to, but first she pins her hopes on her father’s ability to change the prophet’s mind. Instead, her family is threatened, and the stakes for her refusal to marry are raised. The clandestine relationship Kyra is having with one of the compound’s teenage boys is a romance more convenient than convincing (everyone is carefully watched except this duo, it seems). Contrivances notwithstanding, this is a heart pounder, and readers will be held, especially as the danger escalates. Williams’ portrayals of the family are sharp, but what’s most interesting about this book is how the yearnings and fears of a character so far from what most YAs know will still seem familiar and close. Grades 7-10. --Ilene Cooper Review "Fiction can offer emotional truth where other tools fail ….Williams, herself a Mormon, unveils life among the Chosen (a fictitious theocracy) with spare, evocative writing and an honest sense of character that helps bridge the rift between Kyra’s world and ours…. The cinematic drama of [her life…is a means to reach a quieter truth, revealing that moment in childhood when you recognize your thoughts as your own and discover forces in the world that your parents cannot — or will not — protect you from." --The New York Times Book Review (Editor’s Choice)"Williams strikes just the right balance between informative and cautionary in this gripping tale about a 13-year-old girl trapped in a polygamist cult….when she’s "chosen" to be the seventh wife of her brutish, 60-something uncle, Kyra’s desperation to be somewhere (or someone) else escalates ("God has given you to me, Kyra Leigh," her uncle tells her. "You will do what He says. What the Prophet says. What I say"). Is she brave enough to run away from the community that has sheltered her since birth? …Williams takes such care in crafting Kyra’ss internal struggles--and her hellacious story--that the ensuing drama rings true." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)“Intensely gripping and grippingly intense, the story begins with a gasp when Prophet Childs, the leader of a sect called The Chosen Ones, comes to visit the almost-14-year-old Kyra Leigh Carlson and her family to impart the "joyous news" that she's to become the seventh wife of her father's brother, a much older church apostle. Kyra, who lives with her father, three mothers and 21 brothers and sisters in a closely guarded, hyper-religious, polygamous compound, is horrified. The prohibited books she surreptitiously reads have opened her eyes to the wider world, and she has been hoping to marry a young sect member who's been secretly courting her. The forced marriage brings with it more than a whiff of child rape, though Williams unnecessarily pushes every button by also depicting the church hierarchy as murderers who use their religiosity to sadistically control and humiliate their parishioners. Nonetheless, Kyra's terrible dilemma-escaping her fate means betraying her family-is heartbreakingly real, and the final scenes are riveting and suspenseful.” --Kirkus Reviews“…this is a heart pounder, and readers will be held, especially as the danger escalates. Williams’ portrayals of the family are sharp, but what’s most interesting about this book is how the yearnings and fears of a character so far from what most YAs know will still seem familiar and close.” --Booklist“The Chosen One makes the heart race, the teeth grind, and the brow bead up in sweat. Carol Lynch Williams presents a first-person narrative that gallops just behind--or perhaps in advance of--contemporary headlines about the manipulation of the innocent. I could choose no other book or newspaper until I had finished the final page." --Gregory Maguire, the New York Times bestselling author of Wicked and A Lion Among Men"A powerful and heartbreaking novel of love and hope. One girl's poignant journey as she struggles to find herself and, ultimately, the truth." --Meg Cabot, New York Times bestselling author of The Princess Diaries and Airhead“The Chosen One is absolutely riveting and perfectly formed. I had planned to read just a few pages one evening before bed, and I ended up staying awake until four in the morning to finish it! It’s a wonderful book.” --Cynthia Kadohata, winner of the 2005 Newbery Medal for Kira-Kira“In this extraordinary story, Carol Lynch Williams probes the deepest wells of the heart. Against the intertwining prism of faith and love she gives us Kyra, a young woman who meets head-on the power of both to simultaneously buoy and corrupt the human spirit. The Chosen One is brave, its plumb is true, it's a masterpiece." --Kathi Appelt, author of The Underneath, Finalist for the 2008 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature"Carol Lynch Williams’ chilling novel of life in a polygamous sect is both harrowing in its unsparing realism and hopeful in its reaffirmation of the power that books and reading have to change and redeem lives at risk. An important book, sure to provoke spirited discussion." --Michael Cart, Booklist columnist and former president, Young Adult Library Services Association“Powerful and unforgettable, The Chosen One will break your heart because its story is all too real.” --David Ebershoff, the New York Times bestselling author of The 19th Wife“Truly thought provoking, heartfelt and just a plain old good read about a culture and religion that we know very little about these days except through the media.” --An Na, author of A Step From Heaven, winner of the 2002 Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature“An unsettling and courageous story about one girl who sacrifices everything familiar in her search for freedom--physical freedom and, more importantly, freedom of the heart and mind. Though the book is chilling from page one, Carol Lynch Williams' economic and poetic use of language makes this potentially sensational story somehow beautiful, compassionate, and full of hope in the midst of tremendous loss. This is not a black and white exposé of cults, but a complex exploration of the ties that bind us to places and people that hurt us, the wrenching decisions we sometimes must make in order to survive, and the saving power of the truth, no matter how difficult it may be to bear.” --Sara Zarr, author of the 2007 National Book Award Finalist Story of a Girl“A timely story . . . A poetic, penetrating, heart-wrenching, and ultimately inspiring read.” --Cynthia Leitich Smith, author of Tantalize and Eternal“Skilled writing, a narrator you root for, and [a] compelling glimpse into a secret world.” --Deb Caletti, author of the National Book Award finalist Honey, Baby, Sweetheart“An absolute page-turner.” --Elizabeth Bird, A Fuse #8 Production (School Library Journal blog)“Imagine Anna Quindlen or Sue Miller turning her attention to writing a young adult novel. . . . Be forewarned: This book is a compulsive read.” --Audrey Couloumbis, author of the Newbery Honor Book Getting Near to Baby“No doubt about it, THE CHOSEN ONE is one of the best books of the year! I couldn't put it down. Carol Lynch Williams grabs you with her literary talents and never lets you go. Kyra still haunts me. I'll be talking about this book in workshops all year long.” --M. Jerry Weis, Distinguished Service Professor, New Jersey City University, and past president of ALAN“Kyra reminds me of my high school classmate in Utah who married her sister’s husband and descended into a netherworld of poverty, abuse, and humiliation. Carol Lynch Williams’ remarkable story of Kyra’s fight to free herself from a culture that degrades and dehumanizes women is really a story of the triumph of the human spirit. This book matters!” --Sandra Dallas, author of Prayers for Sale About the Author CAROL LYNCH WILLIAMS, a four-time winner of the Utah Original Writing Competition and winner of Nebraska’s Golden Sower Award, grew up in Florida but now lives in Utah with her husband and seven children. She has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults, and helped develop the conference on Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers at Brigham Young University. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chapter One "If I was going to kill the Prophet," I say, not even keeping my voice low, "I’d do it in Africa." I look into Mariah’s light green eyes. She stares back at me and smiles, like she knows what I mean and agrees. Like she’s saying, "Go on, Kyra. Tell me more." I kick the toe of my sneaker into the desert sand. Even this late in the evening, with the sun sinking over my shoulder, the ground is leftover hot from the day. I can feel the heat through the soles of my shoes. Feel the heat coming up from the ground, through my tights, right under the skirt of my past-the-knees dress. There isn’t even a bit of a breeze. "I’m not sure how I’d kill him. Yet." I pause so Mariah can see I am dead serious. Then I take in a big breath of air and plow ahead. "But once he’s gone, I’d drag his body right next to a termite nest. Not a thing would be left of him in three hours. There’re termites in Africa that can do that. No one would ever know what happened." Again I pause. I look off toward the setting sun that has changed the desert from orange to deep red. Not quite the color of blood, but close enough. Overhead, stars start to fill the eastern sky. Just bits of light. I shrug. "All of him would be gone. Every speck. No evidence left." Mariah smiles at me again and lets out a bit of baby laughter. I shift her from one hip to the other, then lean close, smelling powder and, from the desert around me, sage. I touch my lips to her face so soft and smooth. Eight months old, this baby, my youngest sister, is as sweet as new butter. And just as fat. I love her. Oh. I love her. "I’d kill him first for me," I say into her cheek, my lips still resting there, my eyes closed. "And then I’d kill him for you. Then I’d kill him for the rest of our sisters. And our mothers. And the other women here . . ." "Kyra." I jump. Mother Claire’s voice carries out over the sand and rock and brush that make up this part of our land surrounding the Compound. The sound is so clear and sharp and near, I worry maybe she’s heard me. "Kyra," Mother Claire calls again. She stands on the porch to her trailer, the light of her place spilling out around her. Her hands are on her hips. "I see you out there. Come inside. You know we have company coming in a few minutes. Get in here now." "Coming," I say, but not loud at all. Mother Claire is the mean one. She’s Mariah’s mother, my father’s first wife. My true mother, Mother Sarah, is sick in bed with pregnancy. She would stand up to this wife, at least for me. She has before. But she can’t right now because she’s not well. Mariah lets out a gurgle. In the lingering light I can see that she’s sleepy. Sleepy from my swaying and the heat and my voice, maybe. She puts her head on my shoulder and lets out a big yawn. "Lucky girl," I say. "You might sleep through this to night." AFTER I HELP Mother Sarah get the younger girls ready for our visitors, I check on her. She’s stretched out on the sofa, her face white, her belly six- months big. "Mother," I say. I pet her long blond hair. "Can I go outside? Just a few minutes? Everything’s done." What I’d like to do is play the piano, bring Mozart to life for the time we have until Prophet Childs shows. But the Fellowship Hall is closed now. Mother looks at me with eyes blue as the evening sky. "What are you going to do, Kyra?" she says. I shrug. "Just spend a minute alone." Mother Sarah moves up on her elbow, cocks her head like she’s listening. In their room I can hear my youngest two sisters playing with their baby dolls. Laura, who is just a year younger than me, writes at the dining- room table. She’s filling her journal. "We have nearly an hour before the Prophet comes by," Laura says. "Not that I was listening to your private conversation." Laura grins at me. Our trailer is so small we can hear one another’s thoughts. "I’ll be back when you call," I say, and my mother nods, then sinks onto the sofa and closes her eyes. I MAKE MY WAY out to the Russian Olive trees that line the back of the Compound. We’re lucky. Our trailer is closest to these trees and I love them. I love the way they smell sweet in the spring, and I love the silverish- green color of their leaves. I love that, in summer, the leaves are thick and can hide me. I love that I can be alone here. I’ve cut off the pokey thorns from all the lower branches on one tree. When I did that, Mother said, "Kyra Leigh Carlson! Why in the world did you use my best Cutco knives to trim a tree? You’re old enough to know better than that." "Healthier than getting stabbed," I had said. And she clucked her tongue like a hen in the chicken coop. What I couldn’t say was, "I needed a place to breathe by myself, that’s why I did it." I couldn’t say, "Mother, I am almost fourteen and I haven’t had one minute alone except when I’m sitting on the toilet and even then Carolina tries to get in with me and I have to hold the door shut with my foot ’cause the lock’s been broken I don’t know how long." I couldn’t say, "Some days I need to be alone." Instead, I just shrugged. I climb up into the leaves now and settle onto my highest branch. My dress tugs at my knees till I loosen it some. "Thank you, Jesus," I say. And I mean those words, I do. This visit from the Prophet has excited the family. Everyone is thrilled he’s coming. "No one’s mixed up," I say. "No one but me." There’s not a mother or child in my family that doesn’t honor the Prophet. "I do, too," I say. "Sometimes." But life is changing for me. I’m learning new things. I’m "getting out," I say into the eve ning air. I’m sure I’m the only Chosen One who has wished the Prophet dead and his body picked away by termites. I look past the crisscrossy branches of the Rus sian Olive toward our settlement. I can see most everything here, if I part the leaves. The lawns of the Prophet and Apostles, the store, the Temple and the Fellowship Hall where we meet for school and Wednesday eve ning activities. I see it all. And nobody can see me. "Mmm," I say, breathing deep and closing my eyes. It smells so good to be by myself here. After a moment of resting, I open my eyes and look toward my own home, seeing some of it in my head ’cause it’s too dark to make out all the details: the sparse grass and red desert dirt; the shadows of my two youngest sisters in their bedroom window. From where I sit I can see the three of Father’s trailers where all my mothers live. Some nights when I sit here I can pick Father out just from his shape in front of a curtain and I know who he’s staying with for that week. This spot in this tree is mine alone. I’ve very nearly rubbed a
