First published 2015
Stephanie Venable clutches an apple seed as her family's covered wagon rolls toward their new Kentucky homestead. The thirteen-year-old has carried this precious seed all the way from North Carolina, following the tradition her grandmother started when she journeyed from France to America. The Venable family has sold nearly everything they owned to claim four hundred acres of wilderness. Now they must fell trees, construct a cabin, and clear land for planting. Stephanie discovers that pioneer life means hunting, growing, or catching every meal. The work never stops. As the Revolutionary War spreads westward, the family faces danger from both British loyalists and American fighters. Stephanie tends her small apple tree as conflicts swirl around their isolated homestead. The young tree struggles to survive in unfamiliar soil, just as her family fights to build their new life. Both the sapling and the Venables must endure harsh conditions and uncertain threats to take root in this wild territory.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, american, adventure, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: France, Kentucky, North Carolina
Period: Revolutionary War
204 pages · Kindle Edition · Open Road Media Teen & Tween