First published 2013
Georgie Burkhardt has two claims to fame in Placid, Wisconsin: her deadly accuracy with a rifle and her blunt way of speaking. When she says something she regrets, her older sister Agatha runs away with pigeon hunters following the great passenger pigeon migration of 1871. Days later, the sheriff brings back a corpse dressed in Agatha's distinctive blue-green gown. The whole town accepts that Agatha is dead. Georgie knows better. Armed with her Springfield rifle and stubborn determination, she sets off into the western frontier to track down every piece of evidence that might lead her to Agatha. The trail takes her far from everything familiar, testing both her survival skills and her unshakeable belief in her sister. Georgie discovers that the wilderness holds dangers she never imagined, but also truths about family, loyalty, and the fierce love between sisters that refuses to accept defeat.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, adventure, 19th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: determined-protagonist, found-family
Setting: Placid, Wisconsin, Western Frontier
Period: 1871
259 pages · Library Binding · Knopf Books for Young Readers