Faith Sutton loves living a the isolated Port Henry Lighthouse on the shore of Lake Superior. Since her father, the keeper, drowned five months earlier trying to rescue people from a sinking schooner, she's been keeping the lighthouse beacon burning on her own. She loves the stark beauty of the lake and wants only to stay at the lighthouse and be the keeper. But her mother hates the lighthouse since her husband died. She wants her children to have a more genteel upbringing so she moves them back to Token Creek, and a new keeper takes over at the lighthouse. Faith can't be happy in town. She worries constantly about the lighthouse and whether the new keeper is doing his job. To keep her mother's approval, she promises to learn to become a young lady. But when her mother is caught in a shipwreck off the coast, Faith must decide whether to keep her word or return to the lighthouse.

Keeper of the Light takes place in 1872 in Upper Peninsula Michigan. It is the story of a daughter's struggle to be accepted by her mother and by the community, even as she realizes that she must give her mother the same sort of acceptance she is asking for herself.

Awards

An American Bookseller “Kid’s Pick of the List”

Friends of American Writers’ Juvenile Fiction Award-First Place

ALA “Best Books for Young Adults” nomination

Selected for 1997 Books for the Teen Age by the New York Public Library