Will's Race for Home by Jewell Parker Rhodes illustrated by Olga and Aleksey Ivanov

Opening lines:

My father is a far-thinking man. He stands, feet firmly planted on ground, his hand over his eyes blocking the blinding sun. I stand to the left of him, stroking Belle, our gray mule. For what seems like hours, Father stares at the horizon. I can’t imagine what he sees. Not truly. I asked once: “What’re you looking at?” Without looking at me, he answered, “Dirt.” Dirt is all around. Not worth staring at, I think. Near or far, it’s all Texas soil.

And the story continues:

It feels as though Ma and I have a pact. I don’t know what our pact is, but Ma includes me in ways Father never does. She makes sweet treats, tucks me in bed, kisses my forehead, and, sometimes, lets me have a carrot for Belle. She talks to me calm, sensible. Yes, Father is a far-thinking man. Father’s life isn’t here or now. It’s out there, somewhere else, in a future time. I think I’m too close to him, too near to count.

Father works hard on the farm but while it is true he is no longer a slave, most of the profits from his cotton go to the landowner. Father cannot read but he brings home a notice from the market:

Father and Will set off on their long journey of 400 miles with their faithful mule Belle. "Belle will have to pull for eight hours a day for forty days.”

Nearly a month of travel, Father’s body is more relaxed. He still doesn’t talk much, but there’s an ease, a calm about him. The farther we get from Mr. Thompson’s farm, the more the wide-open, remote land stirs him with wonder.

Going back to the title - Will is racing because there is limited land and thousands of people are rushing to claim their share. It is also a race because Father hopes to make a new home for his wife and his own elderly father. Finally it is a race because three armed men are chasing them after a terrible altercation in one of the towns on their journey. Luckily their new friend Caesar, a former slave and soldier, was able to rescue Will during a robbery of their wagon and he has now joined them on the trail, but these three white cowboys are out for revenge. 

It is so sweet to read the way old Belle their mule loves Caesar's huge horse Midnight. 

Belle loves Midnight. Midnight loves Belle. Standing close to each other, they share water, hay. Belle nudges Midnight’s flank; Midnight rubs his chin against her. Ears flat, Belle is happy. Ears pointed, Midnight scans the surroundings, keeping them safe. No snake or coyote will surprise him. When Midnight is nearby, Belle tugs the wagon with extra energy. It’s like she’s showing off. Resting, like now, they keep close enough to touch.

If you are book talking Will's Race for Home, I suggest reading chapter 22 - the river crossing - it is a dramatic and life-threatening scene which will have your library group on the edge of their seats. (There is also a similar scene in One Big Open Sky but with a more devastating outcome).

Publisher blurb: It's 1889, barely twenty-five years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and a young Black family is tired of working on land they don't get to own. So when Will and his father hear about an upcoming land rush, they set out on a journey from Texas to Oklahoma, racing thousands of others to the place where land is free-if they can get to it fast enough. But the journey isn't easy-the terrain is rough, the bandits are brutal, and every interaction carries a heavy undercurrent of danger. And then there's the stranger they encounter and befriend: a mysterious soldier named Caesar, whose Union emblem brings more attention-and more trouble-than any of them need. All three are propelled by the promise of something long denied to them: freedom, land ownership, and a place to call home-but is a strong will enough to get them there?

Here is a video of Colby Sharp explaining how much he loved this book. This book is about US History but I am sure readers here in Australia aged 10+ will enjoy this thrilling tale of heroism and the wild west and as a bonus this is a fairly short book which might surprise you because it is filled with action and danger. Listen to an audio sample here. You can see more books by Jewell Parker Rhodes here. 

Here is a fabulous character description from this book that you could use as a model with your older students:

Off to the right is the first Black man I’ve seen during the journey. He reminds me of a great-tailed grackle. Long legs, face. His ankle-length coat, like a bird’s tail, sweeps and gleams iridescent—purplish black. His skin is obsidian dark; his clothes duller, more ash. Even his Stetson hat is black. He leans his shoulder against one of the posts outside the Pioneer Saloon. He doesn’t seem to mind the flow of weary travelers and loud drunks passing by. His dark eyes seem to see everything. Even me!

Jewell Parker Rhodes writes this quick, slick, gripping paean to the Western genre while also tying in fantastic historical details and an overarching tale of a boy and his father bonding at last. ... (This book is) Short and sweet, exciting and touching. Fuse8 Betsy Bird SLJ

Reading this review by Betsy Bird I learned a new term "exodusters". Read more here. 

Will’s Race for Home is a powerhouse Western and coming-of-age story set during a pivotal historical period. Populated with dynamic characters who grow impressively throughout the story, this slim historical fiction title explores an under-examined period in Black history with sensitivity and a spirit of adventure. Readers will be on the edge of their seats as the protagonist navigates moral dilemmas and leaps of faith to find a home for his family. Reading Middle Grade

The short chapters make this fast-paced and eventful ride through the West an accessible and engaging read. Kirkus Star review

Companion book:

One Big Open Sky

One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome

Daddy says Momma (Sylvia), Lettie, Silas and Elijah are going to move. It is time to have their own land and not have to work for some else. There is no more slavery. It is time to be truly free. The journey will be long, but they have shelter in their covered wagon, and they will not be alone - this family group will travel with others all determined to reach Nebraska. Ten families heading West out of Mississippi to take advantage of the land promised by the Homestead Act of 1862. But food will be short, along the way small towns will charge enormous prices for basic supplies and there are dangerous rivers to cross. Luckily along the way they do pick up a young woman who is hard-working and wise. And when a dreadful catastrophe befalls the family, young Philomena is able to step in and help with their two faithful mules Charly and Titus. 

All the land you want 

Free 

he said to me 

All we got to do is go on and get it 

Take what’s ours 

I looked down at the paper 

that didn’t say none of what he was 

Any colored who want it 

Come with some money too right? 

I looked at his eyes 

shining in the lamplight 

bright 

Who was I to dim their light? 

To take from him what white men 

masters 

loss 

and years of fieldwork left of him 

He asked pointing down at the paper 

And they even give you a wagon?

Here is what they pack: 200 pounds of flour 10 pounds of rice 5 pounds of coffee 25 pounds of sugar 1 bushel of beans 20 pounds of salt 1 bushel of cornmeal 1 keg of vinegar 100 pounds of bacon 25 pounds of dried fruit Daddy’s good rifle and gunpowder two pistols lard, candles, lye powder matches and soap frying pans and a coffeepot our old stew kettle and Momma’s sharpest knife nails one washtub A tent and blankets blankets for Charly and Titus plus their feed too even the cradle Momma wanted was packed in tight.

The journey could take four or five or even six months. This story is about the journey not the destination but readers are left with enormous hope that the family will prosper in their new home. 

From where we sat we could see the lantern lighting up the cabin and imagine the warmth inside our new home in the West in Nebraska with a fire in the hearth and beds stacked with quilts Silas, Elijah, Momma and Miss Pratt inside But me and Sutter liked it best curled in close together warming each other best as we could in the tent Momma let me pitch outdoors.

There are three voices in this verse novel so you do have to pay attention at the start of each section or chapter. It is very significant that these are three women - Lettie is a young girl born after the end of slavery but also born into a time when women are expected to marry, have children, and of course have no rights and no vote. Her mother Sylvia is brave and loyal to her husband but she has to sacrifice so much to make this enormous journey to find a place her husband believes will be 'a promised land'. Philomena is a young, newly trained teacher who values her independence. She has been promised a teaching job in Nebraska and for Philomena this means she can support herself without the need for a husband. 

When I was in Primary School (Elementary) here in Australia I read and loved, like so many kids of my generation, books about American pioneers such as Little House on the Prairie and all the sequels but even more I loved Children of the Oregon Trail. That goes part of the way to explaining why I simply devoured One Big Open Sky. As usual I have no idea how I came across this book and then why I added it to my 'to read' list as a title I could pop on my Kindle. I started this book on a two-hour bus and train journey and then completed it on the way home. I am happy to see the paperback edition of this book is available [9780823460625].

Publisher blurb: Three women narrate a perilous wagon journey westward that could set them free—or cost them everything they have—in this intergenerational verse novel that explores the history of the Black homesteader movement. 1879, Mississippi. Young dreamer Lettie may have her head in the stars, but her body is on a covered wagon heading westward. Her father, Thomas, promises that Nebraska will be everything the family needs: an opportunity to claim the independence they’ve strived for over generations on their very own plot of land. But Thomas’ hopes—and mouth—are bigger than his ability to follow through. With few supplies and even less money, the only thing that feels certain is danger.

This map shows their journey:

This is a beautifully crafted novel in verse: Cline-Ransome once again demonstrates her incredible literary skills as characters’ personalities are revealed by their actions. The intergenerational voices provide depth as the events unfold, and the emotionally resonant writing is rich in details that add texture and meaning to this unique depiction of African American homesteaders that’s full of resilience and hope. Kirkus Star review

The vast amount of walking, the limited food supplies, the dangerous river crossings, and the various other threats to survival are all fascinating; I loved this type a book when I was in elementary school because I liked to think how I would fare under similar circumstances. Lettie is keeping notes about the journey and logging costs, and I love how interested she is in the one newspaper that her father buys for her. Philomena is a fantastic character who is taking control of her own life, and even finding romance with another traveler who accepts her as an equal. The challenges of the journey are not sugar coated at all ... Ms Yingling

In the final analysis, the entire book emphasizes the bonds of family, both immediate and extended. This exquisite novel is geared for children 8-12 years but can be cherished by readers of all ages. A classic, and in a perfect world it would be required reading in all elementary schools. Historical Novel society

Awards:
A Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book

Winner of the Virginia Library Association Cardinal Cup Award

A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

One of Evanston Public Library's 101 Great Books for Kids

A CSMCL Best Multicultural Children’s Book of the Year

An ALSC Notable Children's Book

A CLA Notable Children's Book in the Language Arts

Companion book:

Prairie Lotus

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

 

"Kit hesitated. She didn't want to admit how disappointing she found this first glimpse of America. The bleak line of shore surrounding the gray harbor was a disheartening contrast to the shimmering green and white that fringed the turquoise bay of Barbados which was her home."

The year is 1687.  Katherine Tyler, known as Kit, has travelled to Connecticut because her grandfather has died. The only family she has now is an aunt who she has never met who lives in Westersfield. Aunt Rachel fell in love with Puritan and ran away to America. Kit is a lively and impetuous girl but these are complex times. It is the time of the witch trials. People in these tiny settlements are suspicious of strangers. Their Puritan ways are severe. Added to this Kit has not told her aunt or uncle that she is coming. 

Publisher blurb: Kit Tyler is marked by suspicion and disapproval from the moment she arrives on the unfamiliar shores of colonial Connecticut in 1687. Alone and desperate, she has been forced to leave her beloved home on the island of Barbados and join a family she has never met. Kit's unconventional background and high-spirited ways immediately clash with the Puritanical lifestyle of her uncle's household, and despite her best efforts to adjust, it seems Kit will never win the favour of those around her. Torn between her quest for belonging and her desire to be true to herself, Kit struggles to survive in a hostile place, and just when it seems she must give up, she finds a kindred spirit. But Kit's friendship with old Hannah Tupper, who is believed by the colonists to be a witch, proves more taboo than she could have imagined, and ultimately Kit is forced to choose between her heart and her duty.

At a recent charity book sale I spied a copy of The Witch of Blackbird Pond.  I have wanted to read this book for a long time partly because I thought I had read it as a child (this turns out to be wrong) and partly because I am trying to find a book I did read in late Primary school about a young girl who goes to live with a mysterious old woman in a swamp and I thought that might be this book (it wasn't).

Did enjoy The Witch of Blackbird pond although I did not understand most of the political and historical references. I did enjoy the love story, the kindness of Kit, her sweet close observations of the people in the town and that all important happy ending. 

The Witch of Blackbird Pond (1958) won the John Newbery Medal in 1959. I have put a selection of covers at the start of this post. You can see more here at the School Library Journal where Elizabeth Bird talks about this book. Listen to the first chapter.

Here are some companion reads:

The forest of Moon and Sword

The 13th Floor - a ghost story

Fire Girl

The Thickety (for mature readers)

And if the topic of strict religious practices is one you want to explore try to find this very old Australian book:

One more thing to add here.  The book I am looking for that I read around age eleven contained a similar story of a girl going to live in a strange environment. The woman she lives with is, I think, shunned by the people of the town. The young girl finds the old woman strange and difficult to talk to and yet each day the woman packs up the most delicious lunch for the girl to eat at school. The lunch is packed into the most perfect little containers. Do you recognise this book?  Please add a title in the comments.  

May B by Caroline Starr Rose

Ma and Pa want me to go

and live with strangers.

I won't go.

There are so many reasons why I was attracted to this book. It is a verse novel and I adore this genre. The setting is the prairie which is a place that fascinates me. I think this fasciation goes back to my childhood reading and enjoyment of the Little House on the Prairie. Finally this is an emotional story where the main character shows enormous resilience.

May B is sent away to live with Oblingers. Her family are so desperately poor that they accept money for her services. Mr Oblinger has a new wife.  "The brides not settled ... she's missing home." The new home is a soddy or sod house with dirt floors, thick walls and often only one window.

You can read more about the construction of a sod house here.

May B packs her few clothes, her only book and her slate. May B is desperate to learn to read. May B and her father travel the fifteen miles to the isolated home. Mrs Oblinger is not welcoming. It is clear she is desperately unhappy. Her treatment of May B seems almost cruel at times.  Then one day her demeanour changes. She asks for some biscuits and says she will take a walk. Later in the day May B finds a note:

Mr Oblinger,
You've been so kind,
but I can't stay.
I'm taking the train
back to Ohio.
Please understand.
Louise.

Mr Oblinger leaves immediately to retrieve his young wife. May B waits and waits but the pair never return.  What will May B do? She is supposed to stay here until Christmas. It is late August. In every direction the prairie looks the same. If she tries to walk home she is sure to become lost. Winter is approaching and supplies are running out.

Here are a set of teaching notes. These would be useful if you wanted to read May B with a Book Discussion group. I especially appreciated finding a comprehensive list of all the vocabulary used in this book and some background reading about life on the frontier.

I would pair this book with Sarah, Plain and Tall and Black-eyed Susan by Jennifer Armstrong. If you want to explore the topic of dyslexia you might like to read The wild book by Margarita Engle.

Kirkus use the word "extraordinary" in their star review:

As unforgiving as the western Kansas prairies, this extraordinary verse novel—Rose’s debut—paints a gritty picture of late-19th-century frontier life from the perspective of a 12-year-old dyslexic girl named Mavis Elizabeth Betterly… May B. for short. Kirkus

May B. can and will succeed. If she fails, she knows that she'll get up, shake off her disappointment and move forward until she finds her own place where earth meets the sky. Clear Eyes Full Shelves

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

Re-reading books falls into three categories for me. Firstly, I re-read books every year to students in my library.  There are some books like The Amazing Adventures of Chilly Billy by Peter Mayle that I have now read hundreds of times.  Secondly there are books I want to read again but somehow cannot find the time. I look at them longingly in my library and hope one day I can pick them up but there are always so many new books to explore.  Thirdly there are books like Sarah, Plain and Tall which I do occasionally re-read just for the shear love of the story.  I do not really have a top ten or top twenty book list but if I did Sarah, Plain and Tall would certainly make the list.

Looking at the publication date of 1985 I imagine I must have read this book when it was first published although I have no real memory of this.  I have tried on a few occasions to read this book aloud to students but the first chapter does make me cry every time.

"What did I look like when I was born?' 'You didn't have any clothes on,' I told him.  'I know that,' he said ... 'And she named me Caleb,' he went on filling in the old familiar story.... 'And Mama handed me to you in the yellow blanket and said ..' He waited for me to finish the story, 'And said ..?' I sighed. 'And Mama said , 'Isn't he beautiful, Anna?' 'And I was,' Caleb finished.  Caleb thought the story was over, and I didn't tell him what I really thought.  He was homely and plain, and he had a terrible holler and a horrid smell.  But these were not the worst of him.  Mama died the next morning. That was the worst thing about Caleb."

Quoting this section from page two of this very famous book I have just noticed the blanket was yellow.  This is significant because when Sarah arrives to join the family and possibly marry Pa she is wearing a yellow hat.  A beautiful memory of Mama is that she sang.  Anna asks Sarah in a letter if she likes to sing.

"Dear Jacob, I will come by train.  I will wear a yellow bonnet. I am plain and tall. Sarah.  ... Tell them I sing..."

I think Sarah, Plain and tall resonates with readers because it has such honesty.  Patricia MacLachlan based this book on a true event in her family history.  There is a movie of this book but I strongly recommend reading this very short novel first.  It only takes about one hour to read right through. If you enjoy Sarah, Plain and Tall you should also read Black-eyed Susan.  I do wonder that I am drawn to these books about life as an early settler in America.  It probably goes back to all the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder I read as a child. I simply devoured those books.  There are four more books in the series about Anna and Caleb.  The cover I have put here is not the same as my copy.  I have the Puffin edition from England.  Here is a very comprehensive set of teaching notes.  I also own a cassette tape of this story read by Glenn Close.  Click these links if you want to read more of the plot or a detailed review.