Twelve-year-old Will hates living in Texas in the only place he’s ever called home, and all he dreams of is leaving and seeking adventure. His father is a sharecropper on 20 acres of cotton. Most of the earnings are unjustly pocketed by the landowner.
Father and Grandpa had left Louisiana and gone west decades earlier when the Emancipation Declaration had officially declared slavery over. However, as Father angrily observes, “Sharecropping isn’t much better than being enslaved.”
Will often feels lonely, but he has one friend and confidante, his trusty mule Belle. Will’s ma is loving and has taught him how to read, but Father is sullen and dissatisfied. Will is sure that Father prefers him being seen, not heard.
When Father returns home with a poster that he is unable to read, yet knows is significant, Will reads it for the family and they learn about the Oklahoma Land Rush, in which public lands will be made available to people who stake claims first beginning at noon April 22, 1889. When Will asks what a land rush means, Father answers, “Land rush means we have a chance to claim our own acres. Our own home. Not beholden, owing nobody.”
When Will is unexpectedly allowed to travel with Father, with the promise of returning for Ma and Grandpa when hopefully they had staked their claim, he is initially bored as the trek north seems endless and suffocating. But soon Will encounters more adventure than he could ever have imagined. He is thrust into survival mode several times. When he and Father form a relationship with Caesar, a Black man who fought for the Union and who has enemies seeking his demise, Will’s courage and loyalty are put to the test.
Again and again, Will learns to take off his rose-colored glasses as he sees evil like never before and learns the hard way about the difference between friends and foes. He begins to understand that “adventuring is harder than I expected.” And he discovers that “growing up isn’t easy. Certainty is nowhere. People, including me, are complicated.”
Fast-paced, emotionally rich, and brimming with challenging escapades and dangerous undertakings, this middle grade novel will be sure to entertain and enlighten children. It is recommended for ages 8-12 but is better suited to readers 11 and older.
(Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
About the Author
Sonya VanderVeen Feddema is a freelance writer and a member of Covenant CRC in St. Catharines, Ontario.