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INTERMEDIATE FICTION
Cline-Ransome, Lesa

One Big Open Sky

240 pp. | Holiday | March, 2024 | Trade ISBN 9780823450169 $18.99 | Ebook ISBN 9780823457496 $10.99
(1) 4-6 In 1879, Lettie's African American family begins a westward journey from Natchez, Mississippi, to Nebraska, where her father seeks a better life for them. "We can't live free / on someone else's land / picking someone else's crop! / I need something to call my own." Eleven-year-old Lettie, her parents, and her two younger brothers load all they can into a wagon and join a caravan of ten families journeying on flatboat and on foot. Cline-Ransome's spare free-verse narrative centers three skillfully developed female voices: Lettie; her mother, Sylvia; and eighteen-year-old Philomena, on her way to her first teaching job in Nebraska. Lettie keeps track of the miles and spending on supplies while Sylvia does her best to keep the children's spirits uplifted. Philomena joins the family in Missouri, gaining passage in exchange for help with cooking and laundry. The treacherous terrain, extreme weather changes, and unforeseen tragedies are overwhelming at times, but the sense of community among the travelers offers a prevailing sense of hope. This is a captivating story about African American homesteaders and their claims to land promised them after the Civil War.
Reviewer: Pauletta Brown Bracy | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2024

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