by Richard Peck
First published 2003
Fifteen-year-old Tilly Pruitt lives in a small Illinois town on the Mississippi River as the Civil War begins in 1861. Her brother dreams of becoming a soldier while her sister claims to see supernatural visions. Tilly worries about both of them, and a boy named Curry might complicate things further. Then a steamboat called the Rob Roy arrives from New Orleans. Two women disembark: one is a striking young lady wearing a rustling hoop skirt, the other a quiet woman in a plain cloak with a bandanna covering her head. Tilly wonders who these strangers are and whether the second woman might be a slave now standing on free Illinois soil. When Tilly's mother invites both women to stay at their house, everything changes for the Pruitt family and their mysterious guests. The encounter transforms all their lives in ways none of them could have predicted.
Genres: american-civil-war, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 19th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate
Tropes: coming-of-age, found-family
Setting: Illinois, Mississippi River, New Orleans
Period: 1861
164 pages · Hardcover · Dial