When eleven-year-old Blue Roan learns that his rail-riding brother is taking off for Los Angeles in pursuit of Brother Starr's twin daughters, he's determined not to be left behind. Clayton Bess plunges the reader into the world of the 1930s, chronicling the best and the worst of the people struggling to make it through the hard times.
Eleven-year-old Blue Roan and his big brother, Monroe, ride the rails as they journey from Depression-era Oklahoma to Los Angeles to search for Brother Starr's twin daughters, Rose Jewel and Marguerite PearleThe acclaimed author's new novel recreates America during the blighted 1930s. Different from but as powerful as Aaron's Lackawanna (reviewed above). Bess's story starts in Oklahoma, where the narrator grew up. His name is Blue Roan, and he describes events in a colorful and frank argot that frequently leavens the terror he recalls from his boyhood. At 11, Blue hops his first freight, set on following his older brother Monroe who wants to find the girl he loves (she moved with her family to California). Blue and Monroe narrowly escape death on their travels, the most terrible threat at the hands of members of the Texas Klan. The Klansmen lynch a Mexican youth and blame the murder on the brothers, a situation calling on all of Blue's resources. Running from the criminals, the boys hide out but Monroe is shot and Blue must get help before it's too late. The people who risk their lives to save Monroe as well as othersthe cruel and the kindremaine indelibly etched on the reader's mind. (12up) Copyright 1986 Cahners Business Information.
Gr 6-9 This is the Depression-era story of Sidney Australia Roan, as told by his grandson, who passes it along ``just the way he told it.'' Sid, or Blue Roan as he is called, leaves his dismal Oklahoma town to accompany his big brother, Monroe, to Los Angeles, as Monroe follows the love of his life, Rose Jewel. They ride the rails but never do get to L.A., at least in this novel (which hints at a sequel). They encounter dust storms, prejudices and a brutal KKK murderer, a cattle roundup, nice hobos and at least one mean one and a kindly Italian widow with musical prodigies for children. There is also room for reflections on bad government programs for farmers. The writing is splendid, once readers adjust to the colloquial language and grammar, and the story moves along nicely, with misfortunes awaiting Blue and his brother around each corner. Tracks is a well-done, if fanciful, evocation of a slice of the 1930s. Robert Unsworth, Scarsdale Junior High School Library, N . Y. Copyright 1986 Cahners Business Information.
