Crossing the Tracks

Winner of the 2011 Writers’ League of Texas Book Award!

2011 YALSA Best Fiction for YA
From the site: Iris finds love and acceptance in unexpected places in the summer of 1926 after her father sends her away to work for a doctor and his mother in rural Missouri. (See the full list)

The Story

Atchison, Kansas – November 1916

I’m under Mama’s coffin.
My little house in the center of the parlor has silky black curtain walls and a hard ceiling that I can touch with the top of my head if I sit cross-legged and stretch my neck. They moved all the furniture against the walls except a little round stool right by the coffin box, so even short people can see Mama this afternoon.

…thus begins Iris Baldwin’s ten year hobo’s journey across the tracks.