Table of Content
Her grandfather died two days earlier, and the funeral will be soon. She arrives as the mourners are leaving the cemetery. Her mother embraces her, thrilled to have her home again. Her Aunt Cleo, a woman she’s never met, has come from the East Coast to help for a while. Georgie asks if Agatha has written, but there haven’t been any letters.
This is a slow boil of a story, set in 1871 in a small town in Wisconsin. A series of events leads to the sheriff bringing home the body of a young girl, a death her younger sister refuses to accept. As she leaves home to investigate, the story becomes part mystery, part adventure. However, it develops at a pace equivalent to two people rocking on a porch, chatting mildly about the weather.
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That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update. This book was interesting and full filled with experiences, I highly suggest reading this book.
Not the books that telegraph their hits or do the old one-two punch you can see coming from a mile away. No way, man, I'm talking about the books where you're reading along, merrily as you please, and then this hammer of a hit comes in from out of the blue and just hocks the wind right out of you. Middle grade fiction, also known as chapter book fiction for kids, can sometimes feel like one long unending stream of samey sameness.
Review
The two talk, and Georgie knows there will always be a bond between them because of the adventure they shared, but she is glad when he moves away with Polly. Georgie writes several letters — one to Mrs. Garrows. Several weeks later, Mrs. Garrows arrives to see the grave. She admits that the body is of her daughter, Darlene. Agatha sold her ball gown to Darlene when she learned the girl was eloping. Mr. Garrows came upon Darlene before she could leave.
To Georgie's surprise, she’s joined on the journey by her sister’s former flame. And what a journey it is, fraught with mountain lions, counterfeiters and marriage proposals. The icing on the cake, though, is Georgie’s narration, which is fresh, laugh-out-loud funny and an absolute delight to read. Telling the story of the largest pigeon nesting ever recorded was inspired by a nonfiction history of passenger pigeons.
Book Review
She uses a country twang sort of voice of Georgie, not quite Annie Get Your Gun but close. She pitches her voice lower for Billy and uses different voices for the adults Georgie encounters. She's not as diverse as Jim dale but I really enjoyed the voices.
The beginning has more flashbacks and once the mystery starts to get solved by Georgie, they trickle near the end to reflect Georgie's thoughts. I did like how Timberlake transitioned into the flashbacks especially when Georgie is blasting glasses to smithereens with her shotgun. The flashbacks are short so I didn't feel they interfered with the pacing. It's an adventure about a most unusual topic, set in a place and time not often written about for readers of any age.
About Amy Timberlake
Yet even with resolute determination and her trusty Springfield single-shot,Georgie is not prepared for what she faces on the journey. One Came Home brought out issues of family trust, loyalty and fierce determination while immersing me in a bygone era. I highly recommend it for mother-daughter book clubs with girls aged 9 to 12.
Georgie's next stage of grief is blaming herself for her sister's death and seeking redemption. Timberlake mixes humor with the grief so it doesn't become overwhelming. She also shows Georgie grieving over her older sister getting married and leaving home. My younger sister explained to me that she had those same feelings when I got married and said she cried as a teenager. While Georgie grieves that she will not be able to run the store with her sister, I recalled my sister asking me how could I live without her. In hindsight I should have talked about my upcoming marriage.
I'll be interested to see what the committee makes of this one. There is violence used toward a main character, and there is gun play. Mike Kincaid survived a rewarding, and exciting, career with the Alaska Department of Public Safety.
Eventually the clerk at the general store admits she saw Agatha take off with an untrustworthy medicine salesman. Georgie sees Billy coming out of the telegraph office. When the telegraph man won’t tell her what was sent, Georgie again argues with Billy.
This information about One Came Home was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. Georgie worries that either a revealed secret, a marriage proposal gone awry, high aspirations, or the love of her life caused her sister to run away. Or maybe that's not even Agatha's body buried in that blue-green gown. As the students study the pictures, ask them questions to make them see how times were different.
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