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At fifteen, Iris is a hobo of sorts - no home, no family, no direction. After her mother's early death, Iris's father focuses on big plans for his new shoe stores and his latest girlfriend, and has no time for his daughter.
Unbeknownst to her, he hires Iris out as housekeeper and companion for a country doctor's elderly mother. Suddenly Iris is alone, stuck in gritty rural Missouri, too far from her only friend Leroy and too close to a tenant farmer, Cecil Deets, who menaces the neighbors and, Iris suspects, his own daughter.
Iris is buoyed by the warmth and understanding the doctor and his mother show her, but just as she starts to break out of her shell, tragedy strikes. Iris must find the guts and cunning to take aim at the devil incarnate and discover if she is really as helpless—or as hopeless—as she once believed.
Lyrical, yet humorous, Barbara Stuber's debut novel is the unforgettable story of a girl who struggles to cast aside her long-standing grief and doubt and, in the span of one dusty summer, learn to trust, hope, and—ultimately—love.
"Starred Review. …Stuber's tender, evocative style aptly portrays both the evil and the good while remaining emotionally true. Characters are rounded, the plot slow but steady and the imagery engaging in this noteworthy debut." - Kirkus Reviews
"This thoughtful novel offers strong character development and an engaging protagonist. Grades 6-8." - School Library Journal
This information about Crossing the Tracks was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Barbara can be found online at barbarastuber.com
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