If you liked Where the Crawdads Sing, you’ll love This Tender Land by best-selling author William Kent Krueger. The story is as big-hearted as they come” They encounter a traveling tent revival and Sister Eve: ". . . A woman held center stage. Her hair was a long, sleek tumble the color of fox fur, and she wore a flowing white robe whose long hem trailed behind her as she moved." In 1932, four orphans take to the Mississippi River to flee the horrible conditions they have been living in. Odie and Albert are brothers. Odie is high-spirited and spend a lot of time in the solitary room, a shed with no comforts and usually a beating beforehand. Albert fares a bit better as he is a mechanical whiz. Mose is their best friend, a huge boy of Indian descent who was found in a ditch when he was four with his dead mother, his tongue cut out. Emmy is recently orphaned, her mother dead in a tornado. All are fleeing from the Lincoln Indian Training School where a cruel couple is in charge and the children there are treated as nothing more than money machines.

Fleeing further down-river, the boys learn from news articles they are being accused of kidnapping Emmy and may be executed. Drawn by beautiful music and food, the children join a revival meeting of the Gideon Crusade, a snake-handling church led by Sister Eve, who performs faith healings. After Odie catches camp manager Sid paying off the recipients of "miraculous" healings, he confronts Sister Eve about her frauds. This startles Emmy, who accidentally releases rattlesnake Lucifer, who poisons Albert. As they wait for antivenom to arrive, Sister Eve explains that she had cured the actors once and let Sid convince her to hire them to "prime the pump" in new towns. The antivenom arrives just in time, but the story's publicity forces the children to flee again. Home is where the heart is.” And Odie, Albert, Moses and Emmy are all looking for their own versions of home. Odie, Albert and Moses are all orphans at the start of the book and never really had homes. Emmy loses her mother in a freak accident. When they’re all forced to flee, they take to the river. Told over the course of one summer, the book paints a perfect picture of the 1932 Midwest - farmers desperate to survive, faith healers, folks living in Hoovervilles. Odie, Albert, Mose, and Emmy are all searching for peace and a place to call home. What do you think each character is looking for and what are their different definitions of home? In the end, do they all find what they are looking for, and if so how? They are paddling their canoe down rivers to their destination, often with no food. Along the way they meet people both good and bad. For fans of Before We Were Yours and Where the Crawdads Sing, a magnificent novel about four orphans on a life-changing odyssey during the Great Depression.Mr. Krueger’s magic is indeed evident in THIS TENDER LAND and is a book that needs to be read by every book club and everyone who loves becoming engrossed in the lives of the characters in a book and an era. The book takes place during the Great Depression. Discuss the characters’ interactions with Hoovervilles and the Flats. Did the residents seem hopeless to you or hopeful despite their circumstances? Discuss the differences between the Schofields and Gertie and her friends. Why do you think Odie feels such an allegiance to such people?

The author showcases the world through the eyes of a young boy who sees the good in everything he sets his eyes on. It transforms the reader into that young boy who is full of hope and life and despite the hardships that they come across, they still want to push forward. The writing is graceful, and the characters are very welcoming.That first night in the quiet room, I barely slept a wink. It was April, and there was still a chill in the wind sweeping out of the empty Dakotas. Our father was less than a week dead. Our mother had passed away two years before that.We had no kin in Minnesota, no friends, no one who knew us or cared about us. We were the only white boys in a school for Indians. How could it get any worse? Then I’d heard the rat and had spent the rest of those long, dark hours until daylight pressed against Albert and the iron door, my knees drawn up to my chin, my eyes pouring out tears that only Albert could see and that no one but him would have cared about anyway. Not to give spoilers but I was surprised with the ending. I was so engrossed in the book that I didn’t really think about what would happen to Odie toward the end.

THIS TENDER LAND's lush writing had me not wanting to stop reading because I didn’t want to miss their adventures, and I didn't want the book to end. Tent revivals—places where Christians would gather to hear religious leaders speak—were common in the Great Depression, often traveling across the country from town to town. They offered hope to people in desperate times, as Sister Eve does to Odie, Albert, Emmy, and Mose. However, Albert is skeptical of Sister Eve’s healings, calling her a con. What do you believe about Sister Eve’s ability to heal? What is the con that Albert is warning Odie about? Odie’s journey begins with a yearning for a home and family that he lost when his parents died. However, as he travels with his makeshift family, he begins to realize that home and family can take many forms. The group of misfits that he travels with becomes his family, and the adventures they share together become his home. By the end of the novel, he has realized that the best relations are not that via blood, but via understanding. I am a storyteller. I live in a house in the shade of a sycamore tree on the banks of the Gilead River. My great-grandchildren, when they visit me here, call me old.

If you loved books like Where the Crawdads Sing or Peace Like a River, you’ll love This Tender Land. Below, I’ve provided book club questions and a recipe for This Tender Land, so if you are looking for food ideas and more, keep reading! Krueger does a good job in developing Odie’s character as he travels on the Mississippi. Odie was only 12, almost 13, and some of his decisions and how he feels about something was reflected in the story realistically. If you liked Where the Crawdads Sing, you’ll love This Tender Land ...This story is as big-hearted as they come.” — Parade