The Voice

"The Voice" by Margaret Wade Campbell Deland is a story set in the early 1900s that looks at faith, love, and what people believe in, especially when life gets hard in a small town. It tells about Henry Roberts, who follows a religious group called Irvingites and thinks he can hear God, and his daughter Philippa, who doesn't know what to think about her dad's beliefs but has feelings for a young minister named John Fenn. Philippa tries to make John like her by using a magical charm, but things go wrong when John gets very sick, making Philippa understand how serious her actions are; at the end, the book talks about forgiving others, changing your ways, and accepting people for who they are as Philippa figures out her feelings for John while dealing with her dad's faith, showing how what we want and how loyal we are to our beliefs can mix together.