Sitting on Top of the World

2022 Eric Hoffer First Horizon Award Winner, Young Adult Winner, Grand Prize Finalist

Fourteen-year-old June Baker never in a million years thought she'd be dressing like a boy, sneaking into a hobo camp, and jumping onto a moving freight train to travel across the state of Tennessee. But that's what she has to do to find work so her family's farm can survive.

It's 1933, and the Great Depression is spreading misery throughout America. Where once June was sitting on top of the world, now she's carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. Once she was picking fruit from the pawpaw trees, and now she's picking up the pieces of a family torn apart. Once she was climbing and falling from trees, and now she's jumping from moving trains.

June knows the risks. What she doesn't know is that the railroad bull she's falling for has a devastating secret that will change the course of her life.

Journey with June in Sitting on Top of the World, a historical fiction tale about family, friendship, love, loss, and hope.

Sitting on Top of the World is a wholesome story appropriate for ages eleven and up and would be a fantastic addition to any classroom, library, or family collection.

Now you can read the second book in the Sitting on Top of the World series: Under the Pawpaw Trees.

Content warning: Some instances of physical violence, death, mention of suicide, mention of miscarriage, and characters encounter racial bigotry.