The River Between Us » (Unabridged)

Richard Peck has won almost every children's fiction award, including the Newbery Medal, and he has recently received a National Humanities Medal from the White House.

During the early days of the Civil War, the Pruitt family takes in two mysterious young ladies who have fled New Orleans to come north to Illinois.

USA Today

The book is rich in detail about life along the Mississippi and the limited, late war news that further splits communities. Peck captures the light and dark sides of the Pruitt family, the sweetness of tiny moments, the excruciating pain of a distraught mother's words. He writes life-changing scenes reminiscent of the Atlanta pilgrimage that Scarlett O'Hara makes in Gone With the Wind: Tilly and Delphine are confronted with hundreds of wounded and dying soldiers after an exhausting trip to Cairo, and, like Scarlett, roll up their sleeves and find a strength that neither knew she had. — Lynne Perri