Lonnie Gentry

June 1, 2014
After his father's death, 13-year-old Lonnie Gentry labors to hold the ranch together, but he can't do much about his pretty mother's loneliness. She takes up with a brutal outlaw, making excuses for him to Lonnie. But when the outlaw shows up with the money from his bank robbery, even Lonnie's mother understands her family's peril. She initiates a desperate plan for Lonnie to take the stolen money back to the sheriff. Lonnie battles his way over the mountains to the sheriff's office, only to find that the man has been killed by still more bad men. They nearly kill Lonnie, too, but the sheriff's daughter, Casey Stoveville, joins forces with Lonnie, and together they battle grizzlies and the original set of outlaws until they come under the protection of a crazy old Confederate renegade and gather their wits for a final adventure. Brandvold ends his chapters with cliff-hangers, and his novel will remind the reader of pulp westerns from 75 years ago. But there's plenty of action, and the adolescent romance is well handled.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)