Historical fiction

This Tender Land

by William Kent Krueger

During the Great Depression, twelve-year-old Odie O'Banion and three other children flee brutal treatment at a Minnesota boarding school for Native children. Traveling by canoe toward the Mississippi, they encounter displaced families, religious performers, criminals, kindness, and danger across a country carrying its own losses. Odie narrates the journey years later as an odyssey shaped by music, chosen family, and the difficult difference between freedom and belonging. Sweeping and hopeful, this novel suits readers who enjoy river journeys, found families, Depression-era America, and young protagonists learning to recognize grace without pretending hardship is harmless.