By Jewell Parker Rhodes
Little, Brown, 2025
196 pages
978-0-316-29933-6
Ages 8-12
After decades of backbreaking, thankless sharecropping work in Texas, Will’s father, who was enslaved as a child, is “grim and dull,” and Will longs for a closer relationship with him. When they hear of the Oklahoma Land Rush, they recognize it as the chance of a lifetime. With a wagon of supplies pulled by their mule, Belle, Will and his dad join thousands of others racing to stake out their own land. The journey is arduous, but Will repeatedly rises to the occasion. He kills a snake that threatens Belle. He guides Belle across a treacherous river. And he meets both friend and foe along the way, the former a fellow Black traveler and former Union soldier named Caesar, who helps Will defend his supplies from thieves. Joining Will and his father on their journey, Caesar becomes like family. But he has an enemy of his own, a white Confederate soldier who has been tracking him, putting them all in danger. Before Will and his dad reach “the promised land,” Will will test the limits of his courage, daring, and loyalty in order to protect his home and loved ones. Action-packed and fast-paced, this novel offers a satisfying arc for its characters, who grow both in confidence and in closeness with one another. While mentions of Indigenous peoples are absent in the main narrative, an afterword covers their forced relocation and acknowledges that all who settled Oklahoma took part in their oppression. ©2025 Cooperative Children’s Book Center