Crossing the Tracks
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
At fifteen, Iris is a hobo of sorts—no home, no family, no plan. Her mother died when she was six, and her selfish father hires her out as a companion to a country doctor’s elderly mother. Iris, stuck in the middle of 1920s rural Missouri, discovers that "hobo" is short for "homeward bound," and cultivates an eccentric cast of folks into family, creating the home she never had. But when she learns that a neighboring tenant farmer may have had more than his hands on his pregnant daughter, Iris must intervene to save the girl and her unborn baby.
The many facets of what makes a family are illuminated with warmth and charm in this beautifully crafted tale.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this quiet yet resonant debut novel set in 1920s Missouri, 15-year-old Iris is sent to spend the summer in the country to be a companion to elderly Mrs. Nesbitt. Iris lost her mother at age six and was brought up by her distant father, a shoe salesman who is "a detail man in every way except one the details of me." Initially indignant that she will be sent away while her father plans his wedding to a woman who Iris regards as shallow and grasping, Iris soon finds Mrs. Nesbitt and her physician son Avery to be sensitive, wise, and compassionate mentors as she experiences first love and a new tragedy. Mrs. Nesbitt is grieving her other son who died in WWI, and she and Iris learn to dust their "cellar of ghosts," freely expressing their deepest emotions to one another. A secondary plot about an abused girl is somewhat melodramatic, but readers will recognize, in Iris's story, the vicissitudes of coming-of-age and appreciate the depiction of a surrogate family that provides a warm and safe haven. Ages 12 up.
