YA Book Review: "One Came Home" by Amy Timberlake* **

1871 is a big year for 13-year-old Georgie: her older sister has disappeared with a group of pigeoners and instead of bringing Agatha home, the sheriff returns to their Placid, Wisconsin town with a body half-eaten by animals and missing a face and both hands, but still recognizable by its dress, a beautiful, shimmering, turquoise green gown hand stitched for Agatha by their mother.  For Mrs. Burkhardt and Grandfather Bolte, the dress is indisputable proof of Agatha's death; she is buried the next day.

Georgie suffers through her sister's funeral, but refuses to believe Agatha is dead -- Agatha, who craved a life of education, rather than marriage; Agatha, who climbed up into trees and down into caves and could survive nearly anything; Agatha with the red, red hair.  For the past year, Georgie's worst fear has been the possibility of losing her beloved sister to a husband or to the university, but death?  She knows her sister would never leave her that way, and with her rifle, a mule, Captain Randolph B. Marcy's The Prairie Traveler: A Hand-Book for Overland Expeditions, and a heart nearly collapsing with guilt -- Georgie had betrayed her sister not long before Agatha vanished; had she been ultimately responsible for whatever fate her sister met? -- Georgie sets out to prove that Agatha is alive.

Joined by Agatha's former beau on a journey to Dog Hollow, Wisconsin, Georgie unravels mysteries and discovers others, and is changed in ways she never sought or believed she would be.  One Came Home is a beautiful historical coming-of-age story full of mystery and adventure (Georgie just happens to be the best 13-year-old shot in Placid, if not in all of Wisconsin).  Recommended.

Find "One Came Home" at APL

* I would just like to point out that I wrote this book review for APL Youth Services's more "mature" blog for adults, which is why it doesn't sound like me and lacks all my favorite words to use, like "totally" and "yeah, so" and "awesome."  Rest assured, though, that this book is seriously awesome.  I highly recommend it!

** Also by the way, Amy Timberlake is also the author of the picture book "The Dirty Cowboy," illustrated by Adam Rex.  It's a children's book about, well, a dirty cowboy and it's been challenged, restricted, and/or banned in a handful of libraries, as well as by parents around the country, because it depicts a "half-naked" cowboy who's getting ready to take a bath.  Well I gotta say, librarian or not, I'm on the side of the parents here.  Taking clothes off to take a bath?  Never!  I don't know about anyone else, but I always shower with my clothes on.