Katherine Ayres

Hot-tempered Will Spencer is pretty sure of himself when he leaves the small town of Atwater, Ohio to make his fortune as a dry goods peddler. Given his family's history of helping slaves along the Underground Railroad, Will knows he is doing the right thing when he agrees to steal two slaves from a Kentucky farm and reunite them with their brother in Canada. Will becomes confused when he meets slave owners who treat him kindly, and learns that people are not always what they seem. Katherine show more Ayers' well-researched and easy to read novel portays realistic characters in believable situations. Will's letters to his family are touching, especially when he realizes the horror of the predicament he has gotten himself into. He now knows that good people can do bad things, and vice versa. Doing the right thing can be costly, which Will also learns in the unexpected ending of this this exciting book. NOTE: Ayers is honest in her depiction of slave traders who may force young women to have babies, in order to increase their "stock." show less

Will Spencer's family has always helped runaway slaves passing through their town as they travel the Underground Railroad. But Will is ready to leave Atwater, Ohio, and start a life of his own as a peddler seeking his fortune. When a runaway slave asks Will to help steal his older brother out of the South to keep him from being sold into the hard life of the cotton fields, Will amends his plan and begins an adventure that will take him into the heart of slavery's evil.

As he makes his way show more from Ohio to Kentucky, Will discovers that people are not always what they seem and that it's not always easy to tell right from wrong. After all, according to the law, stealing slaves is just as bad as robbing a man's house. Does that mean Will Spencer is a common thief? Or is he a young man doing what's right? show less

11-year-old Innie Moretti is thrilled when she finds out from her older cousin, Carmela, about the girls' library club at the new settlement house in Boston's North End. Innie and her cousin, Teresa, volunteer to help unpack the books, clean, and do other tasks to get the house ready for business. Smoke from the recent Chelsea fire left lots of soot to be removed. Innie can't resist the temptation to explore as she works. She thinks she hasn't been observed, but when food and other items show more keep disappearing from the house, Innie's snooping makes her the prime suspect. With the help of her cousin, Teresa, and their new friend, Matela, Innie conducts her own investigation to find the guilty party.

This is just the type of mystery I loved when I was in elementary school. In books, old houses always seem to hide secrets, and I used to dream about exploring old houses with secret passages and hidden rooms. The mystery and its solution are believable, although older readers will probably guess the solution long before it is revealed. Readers of any age will enjoy the friendship between immigrant girls of different ethnic backgrounds (Italian Catholic and Russian Jewish). Readers familiar with Boston will enjoy reading about places and events in the city's past. show less

What a confusing book. Its length is typical of middle-grade (175 pages), and protagonist Lucy behaves like a typical twelve-year-old. The problem: Lucy is actually sixteen. She's caught in a love triangle and will have to choose between her suitors (and marry one of them) fairly soon, and yes, her dithering composes a large portion of the story.

Modern ideologies, especially the stereotypical Independent Woman Ahead of Her Time, creep into this historical novel rather often. The moralizing show more is heavy-handed even for middle-grade fiction but really doesn't work as young adult. I know, this isn't a young adult novel: for proof, see the cover. And the word count. And the existence of a subtitle. (And the back cover, which says reading level 5.0.)

I don't understand why the book was written this way, why Lucy is sixteen-going-on-twelve. Why the main secondary character Cass is a nineteen-year-old, escaped slave who is pregnant for the third time with a child of the white master who rapes her. Why so much of the book involves Lucy complaining about things like the weather and having to remind herself that Cass's life is worse than hers.

All that said, there are seeds of a good story here. An effort was made toward nineteenth-century diction. The devout faith of the Quakers--the cultural faith of all the characters--is an appreciated, historically accurate touch. Doubling the length (but not the dithering), aging the character behaviors appropriately, and deepening characterization past types might have made it worthwhile. As it is, too many things feel groundless or rushed. 2.5 stars. show less