Eighty Seven

Twelve-year-old Winter Kelland is an orphan indentured to cruel farmers, his body thin and his future thinner. The only light in his hard life is Vine, an eight-year-old neighbor girl who sees something in him that he cannot see in himself: the possibility of greatness, if only he could get an education. When Win runs away, he discovers that freedom is a hungry master, and the farm that broke him begins to look like sanctuary. At his lowest point, he encounters a bitter spinster who has forgotten what mercy means. Through their unlikely connection, both will learn that honoring God sometimes means extending a hand to the poor. Set against the Chautauqua movement of 1887, this is a story about what it costs to dream of something more, and whether hope can survive when everything conspires against it. For readers who loved classic orphan tales and stories of quiet redemption.