This is a story about the edge of Missouri and Kansas right before the civil war. It explains the uncertainties the people felt about whether there would be a war or not. It explains how those who were for slaves and abolitionists came face to face in normal family circles and in crisis. It was a simple story with a small love sorry of two teenagers starting to emerge. I understand this is Young adult fiction so the book is shorter and the writing/storyline easy to follow, but it never really came to any conclusions, the ending was lacking a lot and I am not really interested in pursuing he second book in the series. The book spent most of the time time telling little everyday occurrences and doing some character building rather than building an overall climax. I realize that to make it longer and more hefty would push it into a new category of audience, but I wish we had some resolution at the end.