Walker's Crossing

Ryan, a tall, reed-thin seventh grader, wants only to be a cowboy working on the ranch where he and his family live and where he spends all of his spare time helping out with whatever chores need doing. His older brother Gil, his mother's favorite, hates ranching but is unable to find his niche until he joins the Mountain Patriots Association, a local militia group that spews hate messages about the government, immigrants, and non-whites. Ryan spends the school year in conflict about whom to believe, Gil or the others in his community who see things differently. Naylor's message is not subtle, and listeners might wince at the blunt racial, religious, and ethnic slurs. Tom Wopat delivers an appropriately understated performance, which accurately conveys the pain caused by bigotry and narrow- mindedness. While each character's voice is unique, they all have the authentic twang and cadence one expects of Wyoming. S.S.R. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine

August 30, 1999
Tackling the subject of militia movements in this timely novel, Naylor (Sang Spell; Shiloh) creates a sympathetic character in her protagonist, Ryan Walker, a Wyoming seventh grader who tentatively explores the weapons-bearing, government-hating, profoundly racist Mountain Patriots Association, which his older brother has joined. What's daring (and skillful) about Naylor's approach is that Ryan doesn't automatically reject the group's doctrines: "Half the time, anyway, they made sense. The rest, Ryan wasn't sure." The stage for Ryan's susceptibility is carefully set: Ryan's mother, badly undereducated, favors the older brother, Gil, and is proud when Gil is made a brigade commander; Ryan's father, in constant pain from a disabling injury, is slow to make his views known; and Ryan, unusually tall, has never fit in at school. Ryan's essential decency triumphs early on, but at some cost; Naylor keeps the stakes high for readers as she knits an atmosphere of impending tragedy. Details about ranch life and the rural setting add color, while Ryan's well-grounded ambition to be a cowboy creates a classic American-dream motif that subtly opposes the militiamen's creeds. The issues and the characters are developed fairly and the plot builds solidly past a surprise climax to a credibly optimistic resolution. Ages 10-14.