Thirteen-year-old Sally O’Malley doesn’t know who her parents are or where she came from, but she is certain of one thing: “Nobody was wanting me. Never had.”
Raised in an Oregon orphanage and then forced to work as a servant at a hotel, Sally finds herself on her own in the summer of 1894 when she’s let go from her job for circumstances beyond her control. She has heard stories about the majesty and ferocity of the sea, so she sets out to discover if what she’s heard is true. Determined to depend on her own resources and wits, Sally is encouraged when she feels “like a string from the sea was attached to my heart.”
Sally’s “suspicious bone” always warns her of danger, and since she’s been repeatedly let down by adults, she’s suspicious of whomever she meets. So when a woman driving a donkey-pulled wagon, filled with merchandise and accompanied by a dog, comes alongside Sally and offers her a ride, the teen wonders what she’s after.
But Sally, though fiercely independent and obstinate, soon realizes the sea is a long way off and her feet are tired, so she accepts a ride from the woman named Major. As Sally and Major, and the creatures—Sarge the dog and Mabel the old donkey—make their way toward the west coast, Major begins to peel away the hard edges of Sally’s emotional exterior and helps her to exercise her “trusting muscle.”
When Major takes on the responsibility of transporting a spoiled 7-year-old boy named Lafayette to his relatives, Sally recognizes that he is like her, a child no one wants. Major gives Sally the responsibility of taking care of Lafayette, even though she chafes at the assignment. But when tragedy strikes and Sally is faced with hard choices, she rises to the occasion and completes what she started, even though she was told in the orphanage, “Sally, you worthless, stupid girl. You never finish anything you start, and most of what you start, you shouldn’t!”
In this adventurous, tender novel for middle grade readers, author Karen Cushman explores the human need to belong and the unique ways in which family bonds are formed beyond biological connections. Contains a few instances of profanity.
(Knopf Books for Young Readers)