First published 1999
Jip lives at a poorhouse farm in rural Vermont, abandoned as a child and left to grow up among society's unwanted. When Putnam arrives in 1855, the old man appears mad and the other residents treat him like an animal. Jip sees something different and reaches out in friendship. The two form an unlikely bond as Jip also tries to help Lucy, whose father was the town drunk before he died. Their quiet life changes when the growing conflict between slaveholders and abolitionists reaches their remote corner of Vermont. Jip finds himself caught between opposing forces, facing choices that will test everything he believes about loyalty and doing right. Paterson places her young hero at the center of America's greatest moral struggle while exploring what it means to stand up for those who cannot protect themselves.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, social-issues, 19th-century
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Vermont
Period: 1855
180 pages · Paperback · Scholastic
Content warnings: abuse, racism