Land Of Decoration

Ten-year-old Judith McPherson is a believer. Her world is carefully constructed around her faith: nightly scripture reading with her father, weekly gatherings at the Meeting Hall and daily proselytizing to the lost. With no TV and no books “of the world” to entertain her, she passes time by creating the Land of Decoration, a model in miniature of the Promised Land which she has made of discarded scraps— divine treasures that she squirrels away.

But Judith’s troubles are mounting. At school, ...