The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen

Last I said: “We need people,” and I modeled faces and hands, lips, teeth, and tongues. I dressed them and wigged them and breathed into their lungs.

And I looked at the people and I looked at the animals and I looked at the land. And I saw they were good.

The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen

Ten-year-old Judith McPherson is a young believer. She has constructed a miniature of the "promised Land" in her room from scraps. Her father is devout and they believe in simple living. Judith follows her father's teachings unquestioningly. 

The rubbish for her translates into The Land Of Decoration. She sees divinity everywhere. She has problems in school in the form of bullies and her father's job is affected by a strike in the factory where he works. Judith tries to change the happenings by making changes to her constructions. It looks like as God is on her side. But all this goes out of hand. Suddenly she cannot control what is going on. 

A motherless Judith thinks her father does not love her. Mainly because her mother died while giving birth to her. When something happens and her father almost resorts to violence, Judith's world is rocked. Her father is no longer a believer and Judith wants him to be one. 

Judith is the narrator. The book is tough to read but I liked the girl's point of view. The negative characters makes the story plausible. And it deals well with the issue of father's love for his daughter even though she might think he does not love her. For all his toughness, her father loves and cares for her as only a father can.