3.5 stars for me.

It took me quite a while to get into and stay committed to this book. But I *finally* did it!

Set in a depression struck Minnesota, four kids find themselves running from their residential school while trying to find themselves and their home. Part Huck Finn and part Stand By Me, An epic road trip through a few sometimes predictable adventures leads the kids to an unexpected and rewarding conclusion. Heart felt, sometimes thrilling, and always picturesque, This is bound to become an American classic.

To say This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger is a beautifully written coming-of-age story is to do it no justice. This is literary fiction the way it's meant to be - compassionate, moving, lyrical without being pretentious, and, most of all, powerful. With a touch of magical realism, Krueger pays homage to many of the great works of American literature like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Wizard of Oz and even Steinbeck while describing the injustices and cruelties suffered during the Great Depression.

It is the tale of four children, or vagabonds as twelve-year-old Odysseus 'Odie" O'Bannon self-described storyteller and narrator describes them, who escape the horrors of the Residential School and journey by waterway in search of a place they can call home. Along the way they encounter many of the people trying to survive the Depression including travelling Evangelists, hobo camps or Hoovervilles, and Jewish people forced to hide their identities for fear of violence from the police.

This is a book to read slowly. It is a story of love, loss, family- both the ones we are born into and the ones we build for ourselves, the search for identity, and the importance of memory and it made me laugh and cry in equal measure. It is the rare book that I know I will read again and I recommend it highly.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review</i>

Thank you Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for the Advanced copy of This tender land by William Kent Krueger. Over a 1932 summer four orphans travel across Minnesota to find their dream, a home. They leave the Lincoln School where hundreds of Native American children have been forcibly separated from their parents are sent to be educated these four: Odie, and Albert, two brothers, their best friend Mose, and a little girl named Emmy whose Mother, a teacher, was killed by a tornado steal away in a canoe when life becomes to unbearable at the school. For fans of Before We Were Yours and Where the Crawdads Sing. While I enjoyed the author’s mystery series and his writing overall, I found myself losing interest in the story and found it too long. The subject matter is a timely one which is too bad. The author definitely did his research because the story was painted in big bold brushstrokes. Set in the time of the depression, this story doesn’t hold back on issues of bigotry and child abuse that went on in those schools. This is a story that some people will love, and other won’t but you be the judge…pick it up and try it.