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thereadinghobbit's review
5.0
I finished this within a day. A part of that can be credited to the shortness of the book (about 220 pages and a large font) but it's also just an incredibly fastpaced read. You will not get bored reading this. The story is set in the 1930s and tells about three kids (I'm still not sure about their age, honestly) who lose their parents to the dust storms in Oklahoma, and they decide to leave and head for Texas. During their trip they encounter gangsters, grasshoppers, train jumpers and kidnappers. It's a tough trip, but these are tough kids who keep their heads. I love these three kids, I love how well they're written, I love how resourceful and smart and strong they are, I especially love Jane with her big mouth and equally big dreams. Just like all Lansdale's stories, it's gritty, it's true, it's real and while this is technically a children's book, it definitely shows the darker parts of life and human nature. Nothing is romanticized, nothing is pretty, nothing is idealized, it's all just trudging on through the dust, dealing with whatever you might find, and hopefully finding something good for yourself.
bhalpin's review
4.0
An almost perfectly awesome adventure story hobbled by too-poetic title and dull cover that makes it look like one of those "good for you" books. This book is not good for you. This book is awesome. Well, it might be good for you too, but it is first and foremost a rip-roaring adventure story full of bank robbers, hobos, alligators, carnival wrestlers (okay, just one), and three plucky orphan kids on a road trip during the dust bowl. The ending is spot-on perfect, too. Would never have picked this up if I wasn't familiar with Lansdale. I hope other readers aren't thrown by the prestigious packaging because this is a really fun book.
So why four stars instead of five? Well. It's the race thing. Not that there's a hint of racism in this book. Not at all. But (perhaps one might consider this a spoiler, though I don't) our protagonists, three kids raised in two different families in Oklahoma in the 1930's prove to be completely un-racist. And even risk a great deal in order to show kindness to a black character. I mean, maybe that's possible, but it felt to me like Lansdale was trying too hard. (Oh, yeah, and the only black characters we meet are noble and kind. Not, thankfully, magical, but still a little too wholly good to be believable characters). I don't know how to get around this in historical fiction--if your white protagonists are realistically racist, then modern readers won't find them sympathetic. But if they're not racist at all...well, it just feels too comforting to me to white readers. We can tell ourselves that if we lived in those times and places, we too would have been completely not racist. I dunno. This isn't a book about race or race relations, so that element just felt off. But otherwise, it really is a great story that I really enjoyed and am glad I read.
So why four stars instead of five? Well. It's the race thing. Not that there's a hint of racism in this book. Not at all. But (perhaps one might consider this a spoiler, though I don't) our protagonists, three kids raised in two different families in Oklahoma in the 1930's prove to be completely un-racist. And even risk a great deal in order to show kindness to a black character. I mean, maybe that's possible, but it felt to me like Lansdale was trying too hard. (Oh, yeah, and the only black characters we meet are noble and kind. Not, thankfully, magical, but still a little too wholly good to be believable characters). I don't know how to get around this in historical fiction--if your white protagonists are realistically racist, then modern readers won't find them sympathetic. But if they're not racist at all...well, it just feels too comforting to me to white readers. We can tell ourselves that if we lived in those times and places, we too would have been completely not racist. I dunno. This isn't a book about race or race relations, so that element just felt off. But otherwise, it really is a great story that I really enjoyed and am glad I read.
nigellicus's review
5.0
YA from Lansdale, a hugely readable Depression era adventure that sees three Oklahoma orphans steal a dead man's car and set out to find somewhere, anywhere better. The discipline imposed by the YA tag makes Lansdale's prose and storytelling gifts shine, but adult readers will miss the profanity and violence, and their absence here serves to remind that in a Lansdale book, they might be crude and nasty but they are never gratuitous.
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