The kids meet farmers and healers and other colorful characters all whilst they avoid being recognized and returned to their school and the evil folks that run it. With just the clothes on their back, these four orphans venture down the river in a canoe to find a better life. When they decide to flee in search of freedom, they are joined by their best friend, Mose, a Sioux who doesn’t speak with his voice, and Emmy, the young daughter of a teacher who was killed during a tornado. From punishments and beatings to physically exhausting jobs and natural disasters, the boys have much to endure. Albert is red headed, freckled, and is the responsible one. Odie is younger, a wonderful storyteller often in trouble, and finds solace in playing the harmonica. They are orphaned white boys who have been taken in by The Lincoln Indian Trading School, a school for Native American children who have been separated from their parents. This Tender Land reminiscent of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer’s adventures, centers on brothers Odie and Albert.

William Kent Kruger, author of Ordinary Grace, has come out with an epic about a family of sorts, during the 1930s on the riverbank in Minnesota. In the end, isn’t that what every good story is about?”

There will be courage in this story and cowardice. Of killing and kidnapping and children pursued by demons of a thousand names.

”The tale I’m going to tell is of a summer long ago. William Kent Krueger has a sentimental and descriptive voice he can really tell a great story! I loved this all engrossing, fast paced, beautifully written adventure.

This tender land author