Eddie "Collie" Collier is desperate to keep his small family intact. He leaves home in search of his older brother, who has run off. Collie jumps a freight train, joining thousands and thousands of young boys and men who try riding out the Great Depression by riding the rails.

In this action-packed tale of a boy and a nation out of work and out of luck, Collie encounters hobos, misers, racists, and even some kindness. Battling hunger, hostility, and wrathful weather, he meets and unlikely ally in a young drifter. Together on a kind of quest,they match their wits, and their hearts, against Hard Times.

Serving up equal helpings of Huck Finn and The Grapes of Wrath, acclaimed author Don Brown tells another "totally engaging tale" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review of The Notorious Izzy Fink).

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"The matter-of-fact dialogue is easy to follow and draws readers into an accurate picture of life on the rails during the Depression."
Scool Library Journal

"The backdrop is the Depression, and the action is fast and furious from the moment Collie, 14, runs away from his poor Wisconsin home and hops the trains in search of his troubled older brother. On the dangerous adventure that takes him through dust storms and work camps, he gets both help and hostility from the people he meets. But Collie's first-person narrative is more than an exciting adventure; it's a story about family and friendship, rooted in the hunger and hardship of the times."
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All contents copyright Don Brown 1999 thru 2008