The Shaken Earth — Toni Sorenson

Fragile, twelve-year-old Yolisha is afraid thinking about her first ride on a brightly painted tap-tap. The city is much farther than she has ever been from her small village of Makak, but Yolisha must go. Tomorrow she has an appointment in Port-au-Prince with the doctor who understands her special illness. But she is terrified that she might lose the grasp of her mother's hand on the clattering, noisy bus crowded with people and livestock. In truth, Yolisha is frightened of anything -- or anyone -- that might separate her from the only anchor in her life: her mother.

The next day, Yolisha is slammed with the realization that her greatest danger was not in the bus ride at all. When the earth begins violently shaking, the walls of the clinic crumble, and her mother is torn from her, she fears that her innocent wishing game might have caused the devastating earthquake that has just thrown her into a terrifying world of survival. But what if the same game can uncover hidden strength in Yolisha as she searches for her missing mother? Might the elderly man who plucks her from the rubble save her life . . . while the man's colorful and determined friend saves her soul by introducing her to the gospel?

With penetrating insight, Toni Sorenson immerses you into a beautiful, beleaguered country and guides you on a poignant and compelling journey that explores questions of faith and fate, selflessness and self-preservation -- the story of a girl who holds on to hope, even in an overwhelmingly hopeless situation.