In December 1850, the dark hours before dawn make 12-year-old Patrick O'Connell shiver. He lives with his mother and older sister in a wet and drafty shack. Patrick has been the man of the family ever since Da, his father, sailed from Ireland to America. But now he has a problem he can't solve: there isn't enough money to pay the rent. Suddenly, the village priest pounds on their door. He brings a bank draft with a letter from Da telling them to come to America. Soon Patrick and his family set off for Liverpool to board a ship. They think their problems are finally over, until Patrick meets some helpful strangers who are more than eager to help him care for his new fortune. Filled with irony and excitement, Newbery Award-winner Avi's adventurous tale is a vivid picture of life in 19th-century Ireland and England. With dramatic flair, narrator Simon Prebble provides the perfect voice for unsavory villains, colorful peasants, and the proper lords and ladies of the gentry.
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Avi is the author of more than fifty books for children and young adults, including the 2003 Newbery Medal winner Crispin: The Cross of Lead. Along with his two Newbery Honors, he has won many other awards for his fiction. He lives with his family in Denver.
N. T. Wright, former Bishop of Durham in the Church of England, now serves as chair of New Testament and Early Christianity at the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews. He has been featured on ABC News, Dateline, The Colbert Report, and Fresh Air. He is the award-winning author of such books as Simply Christian, Surprised by Hope, After You Believe, Simply Jesus, How God Became King, and the series Christian Origins and the Question of God, and he is the translator of The Kingdom New Testament.