2001, New York: Doubleday.
ISBN: 0385498144
292 pages
Annotation: An African-American teenager goes with his mother to Kansas to homestead with his new step-father.
Summary: Gabriel leaves his good home to head west with his mother and younger brother after the death of his father to meet their new step-father in Kansas. Gabriel is not happy with their new situation, living in a sod makeshift, one room house, and plowing the dry hard land day after day. He doesn’t understand how owning land that is dead makes them free. His step-father tells Gabriel that the blessing of being a free man and no longer a slave is the ability to work their own land. Gabriel feels that they are being slaves to the land. Gabriel learns of a man who is hiring that will be heading south. He and a friend, James, gets hired and leaves for a life of higher adventure, more freedom and success. The adventure they set off to have leads them on a journey that becomes more dangerous than the boys anticipated through out Texas, New Mexico and the western expanse. Ashamed, but longing for something, Gabriel makes his ways over territories to return home to his family hoping for forgiveness. While at his family’s homestead, Gabriel gets some unwanted visitors from his past putting himself and his family in danger.
Rank: 2.5 Stars-Interesting storyline but the writing makes it drag.
