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The Water is Wide
When Mima s mother meets a pair of LDS missionaries in the small English town of Wood Box in 1844, Mima prays that the townspeople won t treat them any differently. But when her mother chooses to be baptized, Mima s worst fears are recognized. Even her best friend refuses to stand by her. So when her mother decides to leave for America, Mima is faced with some hard decisions. Should she stay in London with her brother, or face the journey to America with her mother and her strange new religion? Book one of three, The Water Is Wide, begins the beautifully written adventure of a teenage girl who experiences the life of a pioneer as an outsider. A great piece of historical fiction A wonderful, touching story that will appeal to youth and adults Online reading guide great for mother-daughter book clubs
224 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 5, 2010
7 people are currently reading
203 people want to read
About the author
Marianne Monson
12 books172 followersMarianne Monson is a women's history author known for unearthing remarkable stories of incredible women. Her 2016 book, "Frontier Grit," was nominated for an American Library Association Amelia Bloomer Award, and her 2018 "Women of the Blue and Gray" was awarded a silver medal in the military category by Foreword Reviews.
Her work has been praised by reviewers:
"the biographies zing with personality and page-turning prose" -Publishers Weekly
"the diversity of her subjects is outstanding" -Booklist
"a deftly written work of fiction" -Midwest Book Review
"Monson is an excellent storyteller whose research fills in the gaps" -Foreword Reviews
Marianne lives in Astoria, Oregon, where she writes from a 100-year-old house. When not writing or reading, you can find her exploring nearby trails. You can follow her adventures at: www.mariannemonson.com.
Her work has been praised by reviewers:
"the biographies zing with personality and page-turning prose" -Publishers Weekly
"the diversity of her subjects is outstanding" -Booklist
"a deftly written work of fiction" -Midwest Book Review
"Monson is an excellent storyteller whose research fills in the gaps" -Foreword Reviews
Marianne lives in Astoria, Oregon, where she writes from a 100-year-old house. When not writing or reading, you can find her exploring nearby trails. You can follow her adventures at: www.mariannemonson.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
December 9, 2019
I finished this book last night and i loved it all. This is a must read if you haven't. Also I need to get the other 2 books. It's about a mother and her daughter traveling to Zion. It strengthens my testimony about the Pioneers during the time that Joseph Smith was murdered and many saints had to travel many miles to get to Zion and when they traveled place to place to settle down, but then the City would be invaded and destroyed by mobsters it was sad and also many of them died that were trying to get to Zion meaning Salt Lake City. But it makes me SO thankful for them to get to Salt Lake City and settle there and for our Prophet Joseph Smith for restoring the Gospel and many other things.
September 6, 2023
Beautiful and poignant work, based on the lives of the author’s own pioneer ancestors. Told from the point of view of Mima, who's mother has joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mima in not happy and embarrassed, as people in their small town start to ostracize them, forcing them to leave a generational home. I found it interesting and enjoyable. Now I need to find the next two in the series, which my library doesn't own.
March 27, 2019
Enjoyed this fictional treatment of an early LDS pioneer. It was an unusual choice for the protagonist to NOT be LDS, but I think that allowed the reader to see the faith through an outsider's eyes. Good descriptions of England, the ship and Nauvoo. Enjoyable read.
August 21, 2019
A fun easy beach read. Typical of Deseret Book historical fiction in many ways but different enough to feel unique. I would read the sequels if I had easy access to them.
March 22, 2021
I read Monson's "Her Quiet Revolution" and really enjoyed it, so picked this up to try another one of her writings. This one is based on her ancestor who came from England with her mother as part of the LDS converts. The main character, Mima, loves music, but misses her home in England and is struggling to understand her mother's new faith. The writing was poetic, and seemed to follow the historical records quite closely. I enjoyed the read and will put the sequel on my 'wish list'. The back lists it is book one of a 3-book series, but I've never seen book 3.
Quote as Mima leaves her home:
"As the land changed, I knew I would soon be changing too. I was traveling far beyond places I had seen before. My life was going to be different from the one I had always planned for and perhaps I would become someone I would not otherwise be. I felt my heart stretched out in new directions, all achy and sore from the reaching."
I loved how Monson allowed Mima to change, to grow, to discover new things about life and herself.
Quote as Mima leaves her home:
"As the land changed, I knew I would soon be changing too. I was traveling far beyond places I had seen before. My life was going to be different from the one I had always planned for and perhaps I would become someone I would not otherwise be. I felt my heart stretched out in new directions, all achy and sore from the reaching."
I loved how Monson allowed Mima to change, to grow, to discover new things about life and herself.
August 20, 2021
A really good mostly historical fiction. It tells of fourteen-year-old Jemima "Mima" Hough leaving her home in Wooden Box, England, with her mother, who has joined the Church of Jesus Christ. She is planning on moving to Zion with other Saints. Mima ends up going with her, even though she has not joined the church her mother belongs to. It tells of their experiences along the way. Mima is a beautiful singer and piano player. She meets Will Farndon who play the violin like no one has ever heard. Both of them have great talent. They make beautiful music together. In the end, an experience changed Mima's heart and changed her path.
The ending goes like this: "I turned to the west. Together we would dance under the stars and wear ourselves out climbing mountains. But I also knew we would have music. Music and the pounding of waters falling again and again, smoothing our pain until it glowed in the sun. And became beautiful."
This book is based on the author's great-great-great grandmother, Jemima Rushby Hough Midgley.
The ending goes like this: "I turned to the west. Together we would dance under the stars and wear ourselves out climbing mountains. But I also knew we would have music. Music and the pounding of waters falling again and again, smoothing our pain until it glowed in the sun. And became beautiful."
This book is based on the author's great-great-great grandmother, Jemima Rushby Hough Midgley.
March 17, 2017
This isn't the typical LDS pioneer book. The book is told from Mima's point-of-view. Mima's mother has joined the Church, but Mima doesn't believe at all. Her mother decides to go to Zion, and Mima reluctantly goes with her. It's the story of their travels from England to Nauvoo to St. Louis. At the end of the book, they are starting on their journey to Salt Lake. This book is based on the story of the author's great-great-great-grandmother. It is the first in a trilogy. I would like to read the rest of the series. It's a nice story.
December 30, 2020
This is the first book of a trilogy of a 14 year old girl living in England. After her father dies her mother joins the then called Mormon Church. Mima struggles with her mother’s decision. But when her mother decides to join other Saints in Nauvou, Mima can’t let her go alone. Angry with her mother’s decision she still gets on the ship with her mother, thus starting the saga of their lives in America.
August 31, 2022
This is a very short read about a girl’s journey over the ocean, in Nauvoo, and living in St. Louis staying with her mother who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The story is short and sweet, but as it’s based off of real-life journals, there aren’t in-depth details which I usually like when reading historical fiction.
November 3, 2018
Cute story based on actual people
January 4, 2020
3.5 stars
March 30, 2021
I think the story ended too soon. I felt like I was getting into the story and then it all of a sudden ended. I enjoy historical fiction about early LDS history
May 12, 2015
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4.5 stars
The Mima Journals Book One is an incredible historical fiction piece based on the author's great great great Grandmother, Jemima (Mima). It begins in Wooden Box, Leicestershire England in January 1845 as Mima's mother has decided to accept the Mormon faith and be baptized. Mima and her mother are at odds with each other because Mima cannot comprehend how their Anglican roots could so easily be left behind. Soon after her mother's conversion the family is forced to leave their home, Providence House. Both board the Parthenon a ship headed for Nauvoo, leaving behind all they have ever known to join the Mormon settlement in the United States.
Aboard the ship Mima meets and befriends a young mother who herself is not a Mormon, traveling with her husband and they strike up a deep relationship. Questions of belief and loyalty are out in the open and Mima grapples with the weight of her mother's decision to join the Saints. She also meets a handsome fiddler named Will Fardon. Mima must find her voice while sailing the treacherous seas and learn to sing again though she feels an outsider. The scenes with Will are my favorite tidbits of the story as he and Mima make harmony amidst unrest.
Part Two of The Water Is Wide is set in Nauvoo, Illinois in May 1845. Tension in the area is high when Mima and her mother arrive in "Zion." Camps and towns are burned, mobs descend and homes are lost. Ultimately, the duo is uprooted and leave behind business, a promising singing career and the few friends they have made to travel West as pioneers. There are a few more stops along the way in parts 2 and 3, plus a certain someone who joins in their travels.
Marianne Monson's writing is immersing and beautiful. Years of research, family history, and stories give life to the main character Mima and the trials she and her mother must endure. I really like that this novel was written from the daughter's point of view as she is not a member of the new faith. We see the questions and persecutions converts and family members faced in England and on the Frontier. Mima's singing and passion for music is a strong undercurrent, and her beginnings of belief are inspiring.
"Music is like water," I said, drawing close to him.
How so?"
"The melody is like the surface of the eater, easily seen. The notes and rhythm are like the hidden currents, the sandbars, and the murky depths below. But the whole thing pulls you forward in one direction leading you on a journey." p.210
Poetic passages with bits of actual songs made the story so much more alive for me. I will treasure it as an example of how family history meets fiction to create an ancestor's masterpiece. Book One will be enjoyed by both members of the Mormon church and those not of the Mormon faith. Anyone intrigued by vocal music, or family history will be swept away in The Water is Wide. It's foundation is solid and beautifully laid out. I am anxiously awaiting book two and thank Deseret Book for forwarding this one one to me. You'll want to be introduced to Marianne Monson's Mima and her fiddler friend Will.
To learn more visit http://www.mariannemonson.com/
4.5 stars
The Mima Journals Book One is an incredible historical fiction piece based on the author's great great great Grandmother, Jemima (Mima). It begins in Wooden Box, Leicestershire England in January 1845 as Mima's mother has decided to accept the Mormon faith and be baptized. Mima and her mother are at odds with each other because Mima cannot comprehend how their Anglican roots could so easily be left behind. Soon after her mother's conversion the family is forced to leave their home, Providence House. Both board the Parthenon a ship headed for Nauvoo, leaving behind all they have ever known to join the Mormon settlement in the United States.
Aboard the ship Mima meets and befriends a young mother who herself is not a Mormon, traveling with her husband and they strike up a deep relationship. Questions of belief and loyalty are out in the open and Mima grapples with the weight of her mother's decision to join the Saints. She also meets a handsome fiddler named Will Fardon. Mima must find her voice while sailing the treacherous seas and learn to sing again though she feels an outsider. The scenes with Will are my favorite tidbits of the story as he and Mima make harmony amidst unrest.
Part Two of The Water Is Wide is set in Nauvoo, Illinois in May 1845. Tension in the area is high when Mima and her mother arrive in "Zion." Camps and towns are burned, mobs descend and homes are lost. Ultimately, the duo is uprooted and leave behind business, a promising singing career and the few friends they have made to travel West as pioneers. There are a few more stops along the way in parts 2 and 3, plus a certain someone who joins in their travels.
Marianne Monson's writing is immersing and beautiful. Years of research, family history, and stories give life to the main character Mima and the trials she and her mother must endure. I really like that this novel was written from the daughter's point of view as she is not a member of the new faith. We see the questions and persecutions converts and family members faced in England and on the Frontier. Mima's singing and passion for music is a strong undercurrent, and her beginnings of belief are inspiring.
"Music is like water," I said, drawing close to him.
How so?"
"The melody is like the surface of the eater, easily seen. The notes and rhythm are like the hidden currents, the sandbars, and the murky depths below. But the whole thing pulls you forward in one direction leading you on a journey." p.210
Poetic passages with bits of actual songs made the story so much more alive for me. I will treasure it as an example of how family history meets fiction to create an ancestor's masterpiece. Book One will be enjoyed by both members of the Mormon church and those not of the Mormon faith. Anyone intrigued by vocal music, or family history will be swept away in The Water is Wide. It's foundation is solid and beautifully laid out. I am anxiously awaiting book two and thank Deseret Book for forwarding this one one to me. You'll want to be introduced to Marianne Monson's Mima and her fiddler friend Will.
To learn more visit http://www.mariannemonson.com/
May 31, 2015
The Water is Wide is Book 1 of a three part series that tells the tale of Mima Hough, a British girl whose mother joins the Mormon faith. Even though Mima does not believe in this religion, her mother does and is anxious to follow these people and find Zion. To this end, Mima and her mother leave England for Nauvoo. They are only there for a short time, however, before Brigham Young orders the people west. Mima refuses to go and she and her mother instead build a life for themselves in St. Louis. It's a wonderful story of self-discovery and love.
I thought this novel was incredibly well-written and, even though it is the first of three, it leaves off in a place where (if, say, you had other novels you had to read for a YA Lit class) you can be satisfied with the ending. It has a running theme of the power of music to lift and soothe your soul, as well as the importance of family and sticking by family. It is a LDS historical fiction novel, so there is no violence (apart from mob violence, which is never experienced directly in the novel, just vaguely described), sex, drugs, or alcohol.
I thought this novel was incredibly well-written and, even though it is the first of three, it leaves off in a place where (if, say, you had other novels you had to read for a YA Lit class) you can be satisfied with the ending. It has a running theme of the power of music to lift and soothe your soul, as well as the importance of family and sticking by family. It is a LDS historical fiction novel, so there is no violence (apart from mob violence, which is never experienced directly in the novel, just vaguely described), sex, drugs, or alcohol.
November 21, 2010
What a wonderful book, I can't wait to read the next in the series!! Mima age 14, loves to sing and will do almost anything to advance her studies in music. When her Mother joins the Mormon Church, Mima is shunned by members of her Lutheran Church even though she did not join her Mother's new Church. Finally they are forced to leave. Mima decides she will live with her step brother and his family even though her Mother is going to makke the long voyage to America and go to Zion. Mima makes a decision to join her Mother instead but wonders if she is giving up her dream of music by going. Well written and hard to put down. This is book one in a three book series.
August 24, 2011
Mima finds herself pulled into the Mormon culture when her mother joins the Mormon Church. The sewing jobs that supported the two of them are dropping off because the people think the Mormon's are fanatics and they want nothing to do with anyone associated with the Church. Mima and her mother have to leave England to join the saints in America. That doesn't go so well as the saints are hassled by mobs.
This isn't your typical Mormon story, since it is told from the perspective of someone that doesn't want anything to do with the Mormons and yet is pulled into the culture because of wanting and needing to stay with her mother.
I may continue the series....
This isn't your typical Mormon story, since it is told from the perspective of someone that doesn't want anything to do with the Mormons and yet is pulled into the culture because of wanting and needing to stay with her mother.
I may continue the series....
February 3, 2019
4.5 stars. Well-written (though maybe a touch purple once or twice), and with a lot more depth than "typical" pioneer novels. The MC is a complex character--not always loveable--with conflicted feelings about Mormons and about religion. There's a love story, but this isn't heavy on the romance. The ending is satisfying without being sappy. The historical setting is pretty well developed. My only real complaint was that the story didn't have a strong arc--interesting things happen, but some things are glossed over quickly or don't seem as tied in as they could have been. Overall, though, good LDS historical fiction.
April 26, 2011
This was a unique perspective on a familiar subject: the experiences of the early Saints, specifically ones who came from England to Nauvoo and then to St. Louis and then to the West - but this is a mother who has been baptized and a daughter who has not. The daughter is the narrator and gives the reader a different view of what some of these stories that we've heard often were like for an "outsider" to the faith. This is the first in a series and it has me hooked. I enjoyed the writing, I enjoyed the characters, and I want to keep reading to see where the series goes.
March 14, 2015
This book is about an English girl (Jemima) who's mother decides to join the Mormon church. It tells of her crossing the ocean with her mother though Mima isn't part of her religion. I found this book at my grandparent's house and it looked interesting so I decided to read it. My favorite part of the book was when Mima was being tutored in singing. This book ends with a sequel in mind. I would definitely like to read the second in this series, and continue Mima's journey. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy historical fiction.
June 26, 2014
This book started out a little slow, and if I hadn't been given it as a gift, it probably wouldn't have caught my attention so much that I would try and read it. But once the story got going I really enjoyed it! I enjoy historical fiction, and historical LDS fiction can be a delight as well. This did not disappoint. I really liked the main character and that she started out prideful but slowly changed course. I love it when a main character has flaws that you can see, it makes them seem more real. I'm now eagerly awaiting when the second book will come out in this series.
December 31, 2013
I liked this well enough I would be interested in reading the sequel; most likely because I had an ancestor, Ellen Marie Yallop who joined the church in England, was disowned by her family because of it, and emigrated to the United States. I've always been fascinated with her story, and in some ways, this novel reflected things I have imagined about Ellen Marie. Perhaps someday I will write a book about her. ;)
October 18, 2010
I LOVED this book! I can't wait for the next one to come out. Historical fiction has always been my favorite genre and since reading The Work and The Glory series, I have really come to love LDS Historical fiction. I love learning about this amazing time of the church through the perspective of characters that you love. A definite page turner!
December 8, 2010
i was skeptical, i really only read it because it was a bookclub book. i got a little piece of paper in my copy that talked about how the story came about and i really didn't want to read about a long boat trip from england to america but it wasn't that at all and how glad i am it wasn't. can't wait for book 2
December 11, 2010
This is a story about the movement west by Mormons. However, unlike other books that I've read in this category, it has the main characters go to St. Louis and live through the fire and cholera outbreak. I had never read anything based exactly like that and it was fun to read a different view. A fast read.
January 8, 2011
A beautiful, lyrical debut by local author Marianne Monson. Strong metaphors around water and music infiltrate the story of Mima, a young English girl in the early 1800s facing turbulent choices that will change her life forever. Based on the author's distant relatives, this novel would provide a young readers' book club with lots of discussion points around religion, prejudice, love and loss.
February 26, 2011
I was anxious to read this because I also have ancestors who travelled across the sea to America as Mormons looking for a better life. It gave me a glimpse into how it might have been and how it felt to be persecuted for your religious beliefs. It's interesting that Mima's mother joined the church, but Mima didn't. Gives a great perspective for the story. Can't wait for the next two books!
April 21, 2011
This book and author show a lot of promise and I'm excited to read the next two in the series. I was pretty skeptical of this book at first since it sounded cheesy, but was surprised that I liked it. It has two things going for it that typical LDS fiction doesn't have: good writing and an unconventional plot. It wasn't the most amazing book, but compared to other LDS fiction, it was pretty good.
May 23, 2014
I liked this a lot especially since I have a family history that is similar in traveling to America. I also loved the talk of music and art. I was a little disappointed with the love story. I generally like cheesy stuff but I didn't really like this. I would still read the other volumes though. I read it in a day. Fun fast read.
October 15, 2010
I loved the writing in this book, it flowed so effortlessly and was extraordinarily beautiful. I had a few complaints one of which being that the book felt rushed. I'm interested to see what happens to Mima in Salt Lake.
October 18, 2010
Well, I'm the author so I kind of feel funny about saying I'm reading it. More accurately I'm working on the sequel right now. It's historical fiction, so I'm spending a lot of time reading pioneer journals. I'd love to know what you think about the book!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews