Tough Luck by Sandra Dallas

TOUGH LUCK by Sandra Dallas (Little Souls) is historical fiction set in the West with a strong female protagonist. Dallas has been writing excellent fiction with similar themes since 1990 - look especially for The Persian Pickle Club, Alice’s Tulips, or The Diary of Mattie Spencer. Her latest takes place in 1863 and features Haidie Richards, a teenager girl who has promised to take care of her younger brother, called Boots. Their mother has died recently, and they set out from the middle of the country towards Denver in order to find their father who left in search of gold. Along the way, they team up with a variety of characters: a freighter named Jake, former orphanage resident Teresa, two tough spinster sisters, and a card shark named Corny. Haidie dresses and passes as a boy in this adventuresome tale which offers humorous observations and homespun wisdom such as when dealing with animals on the wagon train: “it is all right to swear at them, because they don't understand it and it helps your soul. But you’ll get more cooperation with kindness than meanness. I believe that's a lesson for life, with mules and with folks both.” TOUGH LUCK received a starred review from Library Journal which described the novel as being “full of humor, heart, and hope.” 

Dust by Alison Stine

DUST by Alison Stine features Thea, a sixteen-year old who is deaf in one ear, but whose parents choose to ignore that reality. In fact, her father seems to increasingly separate from reality and has moved the family to a place called Bloodless Valley in Colorado where dust is everywhere and farming, especially without any modern aides, is almost impossible.  Thea and her younger sister are “unschooled,” kept at home and made to work on the farm, although Thea has a brief reprieve when she is able to work to support the family at a small café. Through the owner’s kindness she meets the agricultural agent and his great nephew, Ray, plus the local librarian and some other homesteaders.  Ray is also hard of hearing and begins to teach Thea to sign. Her father objects and her life narrows considerably. It is obvious that Stine, who is herself half deaf due to a congenital disability, has compassion for people with differences. She writes, “What I hope you take away from this book is: desire and energy to protect Earth and all its inhabitants, and also the knowledge that your story, whatever it is, matters. It's sometimes hard being both/neither, but there's a lot of joy too. And you're okay the way you are.” Stine effectively uses empty spaces and underlining to convey the frustration of Thea’s inability to hear clearly. Plus, the author does build suspense about an impending storm, but the pat way in which Thea’s father is suddenly transformed into accepting help and technology like new cell phones does not seem probable. DUST was very sad and the pace was slow. Reflecting on other books with hard of hearing characters, I would highly recommend True Biz which received multiple starred reviews and was an Alex Award nominee as well as a New York Times bestseller. 

Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay

EVERYTHING WE NEVER HAD by Randy Ribay (Patron Saints of Nothing, a National Book Award finalist) is told in multiple perspectives across four generations of a Filipino-American family. The earliest action takes place in 1930 Watsonville, California where Francisco, a recent immigrant, has to deal with violence, prejudice, and his disappointment at life in America. In 1965 Stockton, California, readers meet Emil, Francisco’s son, a dutiful student and hard-working employee at his aunt’s restaurant. He resents his labor organizer father and vows to make his own way. Then there is 1983 Denver, Colorado where Chris yearns to play football but can’t ever live up to the standards of his demanding father, Emil. Chris rebels as he discovers a love of history and pursues his own interests as a teacher. His son, named Enrique Lorenzo and called Enzo, grows up in 2020 Philadelphia, coping with anxiety, the pandemic, and continuing discrimination. Once again, Ribay offers so much to unpack – immigrant feelings, generational conflict, parenting styles, and plenty of anger. Students will relate to the stories of each of these characters as a young man and may be intrigued by the way the societal environment and the individual choices of each character impacts the next generation. The novel does flip back and forth between time periods and this may be difficult for some students, but EVERYTHING WE NEVER HAD received multiple starred reviews, including from Booklist, Kirkus (“many heartwarming and heartbreaking moments offer deep insights into intergenerational patterns”), Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal. The book contains a list of recommended resources, both print and online like Asian Mental Health Collective, Filipino American National Historical Society, Stop AAPI Hate, and United Farm Workers. Interested previewers can listen to an excerpt on the publisher’s website.

The Last Ride of the Pony Express by Will Grant

THE LAST RIDE OF THE PONY EXPRESS by Will Grant is subtitled “My 2,000-mile Horseback Journey into the Old West” and it offers fascinating facts while providing quite a travelogue on horseback between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California. Grant is accompanied by two horses, Chicken Fry (love that name!) and Badger on a series of adventures that trace the route of the Pony Express (see map). Readers will be astounded to learn that the Pony Express was in operation for only about 18 months, from April 1860 to October 1861, completing no more than 150 round trips. Introducing readers to hosts such as the head of the National Pony Express Association, locales involving river crossings, and origins of words like mustang, Grant weaves in numerous tidbits and reflections on how the West has changed, even recently. He notes, for example, that “between 1970 and 2020, the number of dairy farms in the US fell from 648,000 to 32,000.” Musings on the impact of the Western frontier on the national psyche and the “fabling” inspired by the short-lived Pony Express balance descriptions of potential danger and also glimpses of humor. Grant is a former cowboy and horse trainer who began a journalism career in 2008 with many of his stories involving horses, including exploits in Mongolia, Arizona, and Kyrgyzstan. I am looking forward to more adventures from him. Both informative and entertaining, THE LAST RIDE OF THE PONY EXPRESS received a starred review from Booklist. 

Little Souls by Sandra Dallas

LITTLE SOULS by Sandra Dallas is set in Denver in 1918 and tells the story of two sisters, Helen and Lucretia (Lutie). Like so many of Dallas’ strong female characters, they are self-reliant and compassionate, but face heartache and tragedies. Helen is a nurse, dating a doctor, and both battle exhaustion in the face of the raging influenza pandemic. Lutie works in advertising for a local department store; her beau, Peter Howell, joins the army and heads to fight in the war in Europe.  Together, the two sisters have purchased a home and rent the basement apartment to the Streeter family, a married couple with a nearly teenaged daughter, Dorothy. In LITTLE SOULS Dallas returns to favorite motifs – with references to female friendships, quilts and sewing, plus orphans, and spousal abuse. Like many other novels by this best-selling author, there are elements of danger and loss, but hope and resilience ultimately shine through.

Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town

EVERYONE DIES FAMOUS IN A SMALL TOWN by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock (The Smell of Other People's Houses) is a collection of interconnected short stories set in the mid-1990s in the American West and Alaska. Hitchcock is a clever writer and readers will care about the teens she introduces, each of whom features prominently in one of the nine stories, while sometimes appearing in others. 

Hitchcock explores the angst of growing up and draws upon traumatic events including child abuse and a devastating wildfire. This is a relatively quick read although confusing at times due to the multiple narrators and varied rural settings.