The Road from Nowhere

This rousing historical novel highlights the Silver Crash of 1893, a consequential moment in American history whose economic implications dramatically impact the protagonists’ dreams of cultivating a better future for themselves. Thirteen-year-old Ollie Cleary lives with his mother and 11-year-old brother Gus in Gatchett’s Gulch, Colo., a silver mining settlement where the family ekes out a living doing laundry for the prospectors. Ollie dreams of finding silver and becoming rich, but the camp’s founder, Elijah Gatchett, forbids unauthorized mining. When Ollie and Gus stumble across an unoccupied cave containing a silver lode, they hatch a plan to register a claim and start their own rival mining operation. Enlisting their 11-year-old English-born friend Alys Thomas and adult newcomer Bertram Blake, a traveling teacher and geologist, the boys dive into their scheme, which they must complete before Gatchett finds out and shuts them down. Meanwhile, rumors of rapidly decreasing silver prices threaten the town’s economy. Avi (Lost in the Empire City) organically captures the atmosphere of the era and setting via Ollie’s animated narration, which maintains a sense of optimism and hope throughout his slice-of-life coming-of-age experiences and classic kid adventures. The memorably rendered characters cue as white. Ages 8–12. (Jan.)