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Will's Race for Home
Bestselling and award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes goes West in this thrilling adventure story about a son and his father who set out to win land during the Oklahoma Land Rush.
It’s 1889, barely twenty-five years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and a young Black family is tired of working on land they don’t get to own.
So when Will and his father hear about an upcoming land rush, they set out on a journey from Texas to Oklahoma, racing thousands of others to the place where land is free—if they can get to it fast enough. But the journey isn’t easy—the terrain is rough, the bandits are brutal, and every interaction carries a heavy undercurrent of danger.
And then there’s the stranger they encounter and a mysterious soldier named Caesar, whose Union emblem brings more attention—and more trouble—than any of them need.
All three are propelled by the promise of something long denied to freedom, land ownership, and a place to call home—but is a strong will enough to get them there?
It’s 1889, barely twenty-five years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and a young Black family is tired of working on land they don’t get to own.
So when Will and his father hear about an upcoming land rush, they set out on a journey from Texas to Oklahoma, racing thousands of others to the place where land is free—if they can get to it fast enough. But the journey isn’t easy—the terrain is rough, the bandits are brutal, and every interaction carries a heavy undercurrent of danger.
And then there’s the stranger they encounter and a mysterious soldier named Caesar, whose Union emblem brings more attention—and more trouble—than any of them need.
All three are propelled by the promise of something long denied to freedom, land ownership, and a place to call home—but is a strong will enough to get them there?
208 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2025
24 people are currently reading
2988 people want to read
About the author
Jewell Parker Rhodes
36 books1,547 followersJewell Parker Rhodes has always loved reading and writing stories. Born and raised in Manchester, a largely African-American neighborhood on the North Side of Pittsburgh, she was a voracious reader as a child. She began college as a dance major, but when she discovered there were novels by African Americans, she knew she wanted to be an author. She wrote six novels for adults, two writing guides, and a memoir, but writing for children remained her dream.
Now she is the author of eleven books for youth including the New York Times bestsellers Will's Race for Home, Ghost Boys and Black Brother, Black Brother. Her other books include Soul Step, Treasure Island: Runaway Gold, Paradise on Fire, Towers Falling, and the Louisiana Girls Trilogy: Ninth Ward, Sugar, and Bayou Magic. She has also published six adult novels, two writing guides, and a memoir.
She is the recipient of numerous awards including the American Book Award, the Black Caucus of the American Library Award for Literary Excellence, a Coretta Scott King Honor Award, an NAACP Image Award nomination, and the Octavia E. Butler Award.
When she’s not writing, she’s visiting schools to talk about her books with the kids who read them, or teaching writing at Arizona State University, where she is the Piper Endowed Chair and Founding Artistic Director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing.
Now she is the author of eleven books for youth including the New York Times bestsellers Will's Race for Home, Ghost Boys and Black Brother, Black Brother. Her other books include Soul Step, Treasure Island: Runaway Gold, Paradise on Fire, Towers Falling, and the Louisiana Girls Trilogy: Ninth Ward, Sugar, and Bayou Magic. She has also published six adult novels, two writing guides, and a memoir.
She is the recipient of numerous awards including the American Book Award, the Black Caucus of the American Library Award for Literary Excellence, a Coretta Scott King Honor Award, an NAACP Image Award nomination, and the Octavia E. Butler Award.
When she’s not writing, she’s visiting schools to talk about her books with the kids who read them, or teaching writing at Arizona State University, where she is the Piper Endowed Chair and Founding Artistic Director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 186 reviews
January 10, 2025
A solid middle grade historical fiction adventure that adds some much needed context to the time period. Set in 1889, it follows a Black boy who travels with his father to a race to claim land in hopes of making a better life. There aren't a lot of childrens books written from a Black perspective during this time period and this is a fast-paced read with a good amount of historical detail and a note at the end discussing how this intersects with the treatment of indigenous people. Great option for teachers especially! The audio narration is good. I received an audio copy via Libro.FM, all opinions are my own.
February 16, 2025
Perhaps I was biased towards it from the start. I remember the first moment I saw the cover for Will’s Race for Home. I was tooling about the internet (as one does) when I came across this striking book jacket. On it is a Black boy, looking around 12 years of age, on a big black horse. With the sky burning yellow behind them, boy and horse are thundering forward with similar looks of intense concentration. From the boy’s clothing you can instantly tell that he’s from the past. And the first thing I did upon seeing this jacket was to post it all over the socials saying, “See? Is this so hard, people??” Because do you know how rare this book is? Though things have improved significantly since Walter Dean Myers wrote his New York Times opinion piece “Where Are the People of Color in Children’s Books?” (and since I counted a whopping six middle grade novels starring Black boys the year before in 2013) we still aren’t really seeing a plethora of such books. Interestingly, Black boys do appear on book covers, but just fantasy novels and works of realistic fiction. Historical fiction is not common and even when it does happen the images are pretty static. General guys-staring-off-into-space kind of stuff. To see an active protagonist in a moment of action looking (let’s be frank) badass in the process… well, let’s just say I’m not surprised that the book has already shown up on the New York Times bestseller list. Of course, that might also be due to the fact that Jewell Parker Rhodes writes this quick, slick, gripping paean to the Western genre while also tying in fantastic historical details and an overarching tale of a boy and his father bonding at last.
Will hates Texas. Seriously, he hates it. He knows that his dad and grandpa walked here after slavery ended so that they could work the land, but sharecropping cotton is awful. Will knows his father feels the same way. Trouble is, he and his father hardly ever talk. The man has seen and lived things that have left him quiet, contemplative, and depressed. That is, before he learns about the Oklahoma Land Rush. It’s 1889 and for the first time, Will’s family has a chance to establish land of their own in Oklahoma. If they’re going to get to the starting line on time, just Will and his father will need to get there on their own. That means dealing with thieves, poisonous snakes, near drowning, and more. It also means pairing alongside a mysterious ex-soldier named Caesar. But when Caesar’s life is in danger and the due date draws near, will Will have the courage to save his father’s dream all by himself?
You know how movies in theaters these days are always over two hours and we all seem to have accepted this fact as normal? Similar is the growth effect that the Harry Potter books had on children’s novels. Once those titles started blowing up in length, books that weren’t even in the fantasy genre followed suit. Great for regular readers. Not great for reluctant ones. If you were a kid easily intimidated by page length, it was a tough era. Verse novels have gone a long way to alleviate some of this anxiety, but there’s something to be said about a sweet, tight, concise narrative where the author knows how to pack the pages with strong character development, descriptions, and a fast-paced plot. That’s what you get with Will’s Race for Home. Clocking in at a sweet 196 pages, the book harkens back to a kind of fiction for kids that was around in the 70s and 80s. Short and to the point. The significant difference, though, (and part of the reason I keep stating that we are living in a Golden Age of Children’s Literature these days) is that Rhodes works in the history of the Black exodusters beautifully into this story. That’s what gives the narrative its heart and soul. The fact that it has some backmatter giving context is just the icing on the cake.
Someone asked me the other day, “Who’s a male author that writes women really well?” After pondering I shot back with, “Well, do you know who’s a female author that writes men really well? Jewell Parker Rhodes!” I was thinking of this book, and for good reason. Want a jolt of positive masculinity to combat the toxic masculinity out there? Here’s where you start. This is full of heartfelt conversations between men. It's about male friendship and father/son relationships. Needless to say, this book does not pass the Bechdel-Wallace Test, but I’m going to give it a pass since 90% of the Western middle grade fare we read is entirely focused on girls. Think for a minute about all the recent publications about going out west. From One Big Open Sky by Lisa Cline-Ransome to Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park, the heroes tend to be girls. In this book the primarily relationship is between Will and his father. Will’s dad has been pretty distant towards him his entire life, and the reasons behind this appear to be complex. As you read you discover that some of this reluctance to bond may have something to do with the fact that Will’s dad was born into slavery while his son was not. As such, his dad sees his son as innocent, soft, and unaware of the ways of the world. It’s only alluded to once, but its shadow stretches long.
One thing I found a mite bit peculiar about the book was the fact that the illustrators weren’t credited on the cover, the back bookflap, or the title page. Indeed, you have to dig pretty deep into the publication page to learn that the art in this book was produced by Olga and Aleksey Ivanov. Now there’s good reason why Little, Brown would have tapped them as a resource. Aside from being two of the top Egg Tempera Fine Artists in the country (or so sayeth their galleries) they specialize in Western scenes. Like Leo and Diane Dillon, they work together on their art. In this book that means drawing key scenes of the book in what appears to be graphite. The selection of which scenes to illustrate is interesting. Some I utterly agree with. Others I would have taken and given to other moments in the book, but all of them hit just the right kid-friendly level of sophistication. And while I might quibble with the look of Caesar (I see him as much taller and thinner – more Kareem Abdul-Jabbar than Shaft) overall they do a great job. However you slice it, though, they do right by Rhodes’ words.
It’s also a bit rare to run into a straight up Western. I mean, a Western Western. High noon shoot outs. Outlaws and cowboys. Also, a reference to the film Shane that’s impossible to ignore. For adults, this is familiar territory. But for kids? All of this is completely new. Now the elephant in the room is something I’ve noticed in more than one exoduster children’s book and I’m still having some difficulty figuring out how I feel about it. Native Americans will often call out the sheer erasure of their people from works of fiction. An egregious version of this happened years ago in 2009 when a fantasy author said in public that she’d created an alternate America without Native peoples (she said the Land Bridge never existed) because it was simpler to write the book without them. This event was called Mammothgate (the idea being that woolly mammoths would still exist if humans hadn’t populated the Americas) and it raised larger questions of whether or not it’s just as much a sin to erase an entire people as it is include them poorly. Because the focus of this book is on the Black American historical experience, I kept a sharp eye out for any mention of why, precisely, all this land in Oklahoma has opened up. Read the novel itself alone and no mention is made of Indigenous peoples. Not once. That struck me as less than realistic, but had Rhodes been realistic then it’s entirely possible that the characters would have been saying historically accurate things that were offensive to modern readers. Still, it’s a little difficult to hear a book talking about owning land when you know the land is stolen land. To some extent I was reminded of Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry. That’s another series where the focus on land is paramount (one of the books in the series actually sporting the name The Land). This book harkens back to that one, and would probably pair beautifully together in some kind of class unit. Now none of this is to say that Rhodes doesn’t mention Indigenous people at length in her Afterword. She name checks the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the Chocktaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, Cherokee, and Creek tribes. She speaks at length there about the injustices put upon them. The question is, does that make up for not mentioning them in the larger text, even briefly? Something to think about.
Before she became a children’s book author, Jewell Parker Rhodes was a prolific adult author. Indeed, my own library is full of her historical fiction. It makes perfect sense that when she pivoted to children’s historical fiction, the genre would fit her like a glove. But it’s not enough to just know the time period. There’s heart in this book. Men and boys bonding. A consideration of violence and guns that rings louder here than most books set in the present day even get close to. A too little mentioned moment from American history now getting its day in the sun. Short and sweet, exciting and touching. And while I’d like a larger conversation about Indigenous representation in narratives that involve their land, I think that there’s a lot in this book that I’d like other authors to replicate. For those kids that pooh-pooh historical fiction as boring, this is the book you hand them. And if this is the future of children’s literature, I am here for it.
Will hates Texas. Seriously, he hates it. He knows that his dad and grandpa walked here after slavery ended so that they could work the land, but sharecropping cotton is awful. Will knows his father feels the same way. Trouble is, he and his father hardly ever talk. The man has seen and lived things that have left him quiet, contemplative, and depressed. That is, before he learns about the Oklahoma Land Rush. It’s 1889 and for the first time, Will’s family has a chance to establish land of their own in Oklahoma. If they’re going to get to the starting line on time, just Will and his father will need to get there on their own. That means dealing with thieves, poisonous snakes, near drowning, and more. It also means pairing alongside a mysterious ex-soldier named Caesar. But when Caesar’s life is in danger and the due date draws near, will Will have the courage to save his father’s dream all by himself?
You know how movies in theaters these days are always over two hours and we all seem to have accepted this fact as normal? Similar is the growth effect that the Harry Potter books had on children’s novels. Once those titles started blowing up in length, books that weren’t even in the fantasy genre followed suit. Great for regular readers. Not great for reluctant ones. If you were a kid easily intimidated by page length, it was a tough era. Verse novels have gone a long way to alleviate some of this anxiety, but there’s something to be said about a sweet, tight, concise narrative where the author knows how to pack the pages with strong character development, descriptions, and a fast-paced plot. That’s what you get with Will’s Race for Home. Clocking in at a sweet 196 pages, the book harkens back to a kind of fiction for kids that was around in the 70s and 80s. Short and to the point. The significant difference, though, (and part of the reason I keep stating that we are living in a Golden Age of Children’s Literature these days) is that Rhodes works in the history of the Black exodusters beautifully into this story. That’s what gives the narrative its heart and soul. The fact that it has some backmatter giving context is just the icing on the cake.
Someone asked me the other day, “Who’s a male author that writes women really well?” After pondering I shot back with, “Well, do you know who’s a female author that writes men really well? Jewell Parker Rhodes!” I was thinking of this book, and for good reason. Want a jolt of positive masculinity to combat the toxic masculinity out there? Here’s where you start. This is full of heartfelt conversations between men. It's about male friendship and father/son relationships. Needless to say, this book does not pass the Bechdel-Wallace Test, but I’m going to give it a pass since 90% of the Western middle grade fare we read is entirely focused on girls. Think for a minute about all the recent publications about going out west. From One Big Open Sky by Lisa Cline-Ransome to Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park, the heroes tend to be girls. In this book the primarily relationship is between Will and his father. Will’s dad has been pretty distant towards him his entire life, and the reasons behind this appear to be complex. As you read you discover that some of this reluctance to bond may have something to do with the fact that Will’s dad was born into slavery while his son was not. As such, his dad sees his son as innocent, soft, and unaware of the ways of the world. It’s only alluded to once, but its shadow stretches long.
One thing I found a mite bit peculiar about the book was the fact that the illustrators weren’t credited on the cover, the back bookflap, or the title page. Indeed, you have to dig pretty deep into the publication page to learn that the art in this book was produced by Olga and Aleksey Ivanov. Now there’s good reason why Little, Brown would have tapped them as a resource. Aside from being two of the top Egg Tempera Fine Artists in the country (or so sayeth their galleries) they specialize in Western scenes. Like Leo and Diane Dillon, they work together on their art. In this book that means drawing key scenes of the book in what appears to be graphite. The selection of which scenes to illustrate is interesting. Some I utterly agree with. Others I would have taken and given to other moments in the book, but all of them hit just the right kid-friendly level of sophistication. And while I might quibble with the look of Caesar (I see him as much taller and thinner – more Kareem Abdul-Jabbar than Shaft) overall they do a great job. However you slice it, though, they do right by Rhodes’ words.
It’s also a bit rare to run into a straight up Western. I mean, a Western Western. High noon shoot outs. Outlaws and cowboys. Also, a reference to the film Shane that’s impossible to ignore. For adults, this is familiar territory. But for kids? All of this is completely new. Now the elephant in the room is something I’ve noticed in more than one exoduster children’s book and I’m still having some difficulty figuring out how I feel about it. Native Americans will often call out the sheer erasure of their people from works of fiction. An egregious version of this happened years ago in 2009 when a fantasy author said in public that she’d created an alternate America without Native peoples (she said the Land Bridge never existed) because it was simpler to write the book without them. This event was called Mammothgate (the idea being that woolly mammoths would still exist if humans hadn’t populated the Americas) and it raised larger questions of whether or not it’s just as much a sin to erase an entire people as it is include them poorly. Because the focus of this book is on the Black American historical experience, I kept a sharp eye out for any mention of why, precisely, all this land in Oklahoma has opened up. Read the novel itself alone and no mention is made of Indigenous peoples. Not once. That struck me as less than realistic, but had Rhodes been realistic then it’s entirely possible that the characters would have been saying historically accurate things that were offensive to modern readers. Still, it’s a little difficult to hear a book talking about owning land when you know the land is stolen land. To some extent I was reminded of Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry. That’s another series where the focus on land is paramount (one of the books in the series actually sporting the name The Land). This book harkens back to that one, and would probably pair beautifully together in some kind of class unit. Now none of this is to say that Rhodes doesn’t mention Indigenous people at length in her Afterword. She name checks the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the Chocktaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, Cherokee, and Creek tribes. She speaks at length there about the injustices put upon them. The question is, does that make up for not mentioning them in the larger text, even briefly? Something to think about.
Before she became a children’s book author, Jewell Parker Rhodes was a prolific adult author. Indeed, my own library is full of her historical fiction. It makes perfect sense that when she pivoted to children’s historical fiction, the genre would fit her like a glove. But it’s not enough to just know the time period. There’s heart in this book. Men and boys bonding. A consideration of violence and guns that rings louder here than most books set in the present day even get close to. A too little mentioned moment from American history now getting its day in the sun. Short and sweet, exciting and touching. And while I’d like a larger conversation about Indigenous representation in narratives that involve their land, I think that there’s a lot in this book that I’d like other authors to replicate. For those kids that pooh-pooh historical fiction as boring, this is the book you hand them. And if this is the future of children’s literature, I am here for it.
January 15, 2025
A MG historical fiction that offers amazing representation of the Black cowboys in our nation’s history.
🤠
It’s 1889 and Emancipation was a mere twenty-five years ago and Will’s family is tired of working someone else’s land. Will’s father, in particular, can think or talk of nothing else so when he hears of the great Oklahoma land rush both he and Will travel from Texas to Oklahoma to claim their land. However, along the way they’re met with resistance from those who wish to take what little they have, as well as find allies in those who offer kindness. Will grows up on this trip and learns what it is to be a man.
🐴
I can always count on JPR to write compelling middle grade fiction and this novel is just another testament to her gift as a writer. I’m not a big historical fiction reader, but she had me hooked and invested from the beginning. This title released yesterday and every elementary & middle school needs it! Thanks LibroFM for the ALC!
CW: blood, body horror (age appropriate), theft, gun violence, animal death (brief mention), drowning, death, slavery
🤠
It’s 1889 and Emancipation was a mere twenty-five years ago and Will’s family is tired of working someone else’s land. Will’s father, in particular, can think or talk of nothing else so when he hears of the great Oklahoma land rush both he and Will travel from Texas to Oklahoma to claim their land. However, along the way they’re met with resistance from those who wish to take what little they have, as well as find allies in those who offer kindness. Will grows up on this trip and learns what it is to be a man.
🐴
I can always count on JPR to write compelling middle grade fiction and this novel is just another testament to her gift as a writer. I’m not a big historical fiction reader, but she had me hooked and invested from the beginning. This title released yesterday and every elementary & middle school needs it! Thanks LibroFM for the ALC!
CW: blood, body horror (age appropriate), theft, gun violence, animal death (brief mention), drowning, death, slavery
September 18, 2025
Will’s father was born a slave. Will was born free. Will’s father does not feel the freedom of working the land as a share cropper. When he hears of the land stakes in Oklahoma he and Will leave Will’s mother and grandfather in Louisiana and set out with their mule on breakneck and dangerous adventure.
This book does a good job of keeping the action front and foremost in the narrative. And it is blessedly short, I don’t mean that in a negative way. I’m happy to see that more quality books seem to be published under the 200 page mark. The historical setting is vivid and dire. It really deserves another star, but I’m having trouble at the moment with books in verse, they are not landing on my ear in a comfortable way. I hope to find many, many readers for this book.
This book does a good job of keeping the action front and foremost in the narrative. And it is blessedly short, I don’t mean that in a negative way. I’m happy to see that more quality books seem to be published under the 200 page mark. The historical setting is vivid and dire. It really deserves another star, but I’m having trouble at the moment with books in verse, they are not landing on my ear in a comfortable way. I hope to find many, many readers for this book.
March 15, 2025
I finally found a Jewell Parker Rhodes book that works for me and it’s a WESTERN? Ok. I sat down to start this and then couldn’t move until it was done. So exciting! And I love every character! Including the horses!
September 26, 2025
This was a quick, action packed read for me. There's lots of danger of different types, everything from dangerous gun toting cowboys to deadly animals. But most of all is the very long, difficult journey that young Will takes as he travels from Texas to Oklahoma to hopefully get a piece of free land he can call his own.
Before I started this, I did feel I was in a bit of a reading slump. But this story woke me up! Often I just enjoy the simple plots of these middle grade novels. But Will actually grows up during the course of this book and he learns to be a man. Can it really be called simple then??
The environment in here really comes to life via excellent writing skills. The desert, the dangers of the river crossing, the pounding of horse hooves... You can almost hear the creek of the wagons.
Better yet the book has many black and white illustrations to show important scenes. I really love the art in here!
Do I have favorite characters? Yes! Belle the mule and Midnight the horse. And did I pick this up because there was a horse on the cover? You bet!
I will admit there was a scene in here that did give me some anxiety, where Will was told that Midnight will give him her heart if he asks. I have read a lot of horse books over the years and sometimes that phrase means something very specific. Sometimes the great racehorses do that....
But Will faces very real dangers in here, life or death dangers. It's most definitely a very exciting story.
Before I started this, I did feel I was in a bit of a reading slump. But this story woke me up! Often I just enjoy the simple plots of these middle grade novels. But Will actually grows up during the course of this book and he learns to be a man. Can it really be called simple then??
The environment in here really comes to life via excellent writing skills. The desert, the dangers of the river crossing, the pounding of horse hooves... You can almost hear the creek of the wagons.
Better yet the book has many black and white illustrations to show important scenes. I really love the art in here!
Do I have favorite characters? Yes! Belle the mule and Midnight the horse. And did I pick this up because there was a horse on the cover? You bet!
I will admit there was a scene in here that did give me some anxiety, where Will was told that Midnight will give him her heart if he asks. I have read a lot of horse books over the years and sometimes that phrase means something very specific. Sometimes the great racehorses do that....
But Will faces very real dangers in here, life or death dangers. It's most definitely a very exciting story.
August 27, 2024
i’m particularly interested in this era at the moment, so i was certainly bias towards this book, but it was excellent. having never read JPR’s work before i was mostly going in blind, but was ultimately impressed with the sparse, effective, and emotionally gratifying style.
the characters were fully formed even in the midst of misunderstanding and shadowed intentions. naturally i wanted them to succeed, & their flaws and struggles were presented in a way that was tangible and accessible. beautiful little book.
the characters were fully formed even in the midst of misunderstanding and shadowed intentions. naturally i wanted them to succeed, & their flaws and struggles were presented in a way that was tangible and accessible. beautiful little book.
April 7, 2025
Will's Race for Home shares a different point of view than most western novels: Will is the son of formerly enslaved people who have decided to make a grab in the Oklahoma land rush to try to claim land for themselves. Sharecroppers since emancipation, Will's parents and grandfather are stuck in a system designed to put them at a disadvantage. The decision to take part in the land rush is not taken lightly. Preparations are intense and not everyone can go. What begins as a father/son journey is soon augmented by the presence of Caesar; a former Union officer who takes the duo under his wing as they travel together. The trio face racism and violence both in their general travels and specific to those who can't accept that the war is over (and that the Confederacy lost).
I enjoyed seeing Will's relationship with both his father and Caesar change and grow, and to see how his relationships with those men give him the support he needs to become the young man he is by the end of the story. The sheer bravery shown by this 12-year-old kid is mind-boggling to me, as an adult.
While the context of the land rush isn't spelled out in Will's perspective, the author's note does provide necessary information on the Native peoples who were displaced, thus making these millions of acres "available" for settlement.
I enjoyed seeing Will's relationship with both his father and Caesar change and grow, and to see how his relationships with those men give him the support he needs to become the young man he is by the end of the story. The sheer bravery shown by this 12-year-old kid is mind-boggling to me, as an adult.
While the context of the land rush isn't spelled out in Will's perspective, the author's note does provide necessary information on the Native peoples who were displaced, thus making these millions of acres "available" for settlement.
March 17, 2025
Oklahoma land rush of 1889 is depicted in this story of a boy becoming a man on an adventure of a lifetime. Will and his dad leave their sharecropper job in Texas to find land in Oklahoma for their family . As the author says in her afterward , “ Tales of African Americans on the western frontier are few.” Cowboys, camping, rattlesnakes, river crossings and dangers of staking land are all here in a book that readers ( young and old) will fly through. Black and white illustrations are scattered throughout this book of 190 pages. Don’t miss this one.
October 14, 2025
With the tempo of “Little House on the Prairie”, this beautiful book follows Will and his father as they travel west from Texas where they are sharecroppers to the opportunity of further freedom in the Oklahoma land rush. Will and his father mend their relationship and meet new friends and enemies along their way to true freedom. Thankful for this point of view for kids and families learning about American history.
January 2, 2025
What an excellent and compelling book that touches upon the triumphs and struggles of an African American family through the eyes of Will. Will is the first person in his family to be born free, and when his father finds out about the Oklahoma Land Rush, he sees an opportunity for his son to not have to live under another form of oppression: share cropping. Through a coming of age journey, readers can follow Will coming of age and finding his own voice as he and his father find a new home.
This will be perfect for teachers and anyone who has a young reader that loves history. It’ll particularly be perfect for any young Black horse lovers. As an adult, I enjoyed all of the pieces of history woven in to create a compelling and fast moving story. I can’t say enough great things about this book!
This will be perfect for teachers and anyone who has a young reader that loves history. It’ll particularly be perfect for any young Black horse lovers. As an adult, I enjoyed all of the pieces of history woven in to create a compelling and fast moving story. I can’t say enough great things about this book!
February 16, 2025
My grandparents lived in Oklahoma my entire life, and I have always wanted to learn more about the Oklahoma Land Rush. When I noticed at my library that this juvenile fiction work was about the Oklahoma Land Rush from the perspective of a teenage boy who was the son of former slaves, I did not hesitate to borrow it! The setting is 1889, twenty-five years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Will and his family are living in Texas and hear of the Oklahoma Land Rush. Will’s father has been living with his family as a sharecropper and longs for his land that is his own. He and Will decide to make the journey to participate in the race to stake hold of land.
The journey to the Oklahoma territory is arduous and filled with danger particularly because of the color of Will’s and his father’s skin. They are unwavering in the pursuit of their own land. The final leg of the journey involves Will alone, making it to race day solo on behalf of his family. Does Will see their dream become a reality? Read the book to find out!
This would be a marvelous family or classroom read aloud. I appreciate how Jewell Parker Rhodes did not shy away from recounting how the Oklahoma territory had been taken from Indigenous tribes and how Blacks were treated during these post-Civil War decades. Because this is a juvenile fiction book, I appreciated how the author did not shy away from writing about difficult topics but did so in a way that makes this book appropriate for children. (I would recommend for upper elementary & middle school and up). I benefited tremendously from the author’s inclusion of this and from Will’s perspective as a narrator, teenage black young man, the son of former slaves. Such an important work! 🫶
🎶Notes: slavery, racism (towards Indigenous tribes and blacks), juvenile fiction
The journey to the Oklahoma territory is arduous and filled with danger particularly because of the color of Will’s and his father’s skin. They are unwavering in the pursuit of their own land. The final leg of the journey involves Will alone, making it to race day solo on behalf of his family. Does Will see their dream become a reality? Read the book to find out!
This would be a marvelous family or classroom read aloud. I appreciate how Jewell Parker Rhodes did not shy away from recounting how the Oklahoma territory had been taken from Indigenous tribes and how Blacks were treated during these post-Civil War decades. Because this is a juvenile fiction book, I appreciated how the author did not shy away from writing about difficult topics but did so in a way that makes this book appropriate for children. (I would recommend for upper elementary & middle school and up). I benefited tremendously from the author’s inclusion of this and from Will’s perspective as a narrator, teenage black young man, the son of former slaves. Such an important work! 🫶
🎶Notes: slavery, racism (towards Indigenous tribes and blacks), juvenile fiction
February 11, 2025
4.5 Stars Rounded Up
This is the adventure of Will and his father on a 'land run' in Oklahoma. This begins in post-Reconstruction Era Texas and includes a history filled adventure about Western expansion. I have seen very little media that features Black folks settling the West post Civil War. This is educational, interesting, and fun, a sure-fire combination to keep many kids interested in this story.
This is ideal for grade school-age kids, maybe 2nd or 3rd grade and up. I really wanted to listen to this with my grandkids, who are the target age for this novel. This is laid out well to do a chapter a night with newer readers or to allow older readers to move at their own pace.
I've been introducing my grandkids to immersion reading, and I think this audio is perfect for immersion reading. The narrator of this audiobook is Christopher Hampton. Mr. Hampton has a voice that is rich with emotion and excitement. His narration brought the character of Will and his journey to life. This would also work for middle school readers. There's quite a bit of adventure, and the story itself is interesting.
Thank you to Jewell Parker Rhodes, Hachette Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.
This is the adventure of Will and his father on a 'land run' in Oklahoma. This begins in post-Reconstruction Era Texas and includes a history filled adventure about Western expansion. I have seen very little media that features Black folks settling the West post Civil War. This is educational, interesting, and fun, a sure-fire combination to keep many kids interested in this story.
This is ideal for grade school-age kids, maybe 2nd or 3rd grade and up. I really wanted to listen to this with my grandkids, who are the target age for this novel. This is laid out well to do a chapter a night with newer readers or to allow older readers to move at their own pace.
I've been introducing my grandkids to immersion reading, and I think this audio is perfect for immersion reading. The narrator of this audiobook is Christopher Hampton. Mr. Hampton has a voice that is rich with emotion and excitement. His narration brought the character of Will and his journey to life. This would also work for middle school readers. There's quite a bit of adventure, and the story itself is interesting.
Thank you to Jewell Parker Rhodes, Hachette Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.
November 9, 2025
A powerful look at freedom, family, and finding home after the Civil War.
This story takes place during a time in history that’s often overlooked—the years after the Emancipation Proclamation, when many Black families in the South were still fighting for the freedom and opportunity they’d been promised. Will’s Race for Home beautifully shows the struggles these families faced and the resilience, courage, and perseverance that carried them forward.
The pacing pulls you right in—it’s fast-moving and full of heart, the kind of story you want to finish in one sitting. Jewell Parker Rhodes gives voice to an important part of American history, reminding readers that freedom was not automatically given afree emancipation; it had to be fought for in new ways.
This is a powerful and necessary addition to both classrooms and libraries. It invites meaningful conversations about hope, justice, finding home, and what it truly means to be free.
This story takes place during a time in history that’s often overlooked—the years after the Emancipation Proclamation, when many Black families in the South were still fighting for the freedom and opportunity they’d been promised. Will’s Race for Home beautifully shows the struggles these families faced and the resilience, courage, and perseverance that carried them forward.
The pacing pulls you right in—it’s fast-moving and full of heart, the kind of story you want to finish in one sitting. Jewell Parker Rhodes gives voice to an important part of American history, reminding readers that freedom was not automatically given afree emancipation; it had to be fought for in new ways.
This is a powerful and necessary addition to both classrooms and libraries. It invites meaningful conversations about hope, justice, finding home, and what it truly means to be free.
February 24, 2025
Cowboys, horses, bandits, and guns! In this fresh and exciting historical fiction novel, Will and his father set out to claim land in the Oklahoma land-rush of 1889. This coming of age story of an African American boy on the western frontier is about the desire for freedom and a place to call home. The author has created a complex and likable protagonist in Will. The strangers he meets along his journey are also complex, and illustrate the moral ambiguity of humans. That's not something most middle grade novels tackle. It's exciting to see an exploration of African Americans on the western frontier. And the cover art is amazing. The intensity on Will's face speaks to his determination to help his family secure land they can call their own.
November 24, 2024
A great adventure story about a son and his father who set out to win land during the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889. The journey isn’t easy, the terrain is rough and they have encounters with bandits. But a mysterious Union soldier may be just what they need. The promise of freedom, land ownership and a place to call home is what propels them. But is a strong will enough to get them there?
If you are looking for a fast-paced historical fiction book that is sure to grab your middle grade readers, give this book a try. I think it will appeal to both boys and girls.
If you are looking for a fast-paced historical fiction book that is sure to grab your middle grade readers, give this book a try. I think it will appeal to both boys and girls.
January 6, 2025
Loved this book, done in a simple but relevant middle grade with scenes appropriated for the age it will also make older readers fall in love with this journey of bravery. A family will journey to reclaim land in the 1880s. Perfect for adults who loved the show 1883 this book makes the most relevant facts, and difficulties well explained to younger readers. The crossing of the river, the prejudice from those still fighting the war in their heads and hearts. I couldn't put it down. Also recommend it as an audiobook.
Read
February 4, 2025This is the kind of stuff kids deserve, instead of just the Little House stuff that I had (and loved, to be fully honest, but also recognized the problems in). This is a really solid book and audiobook production, and I love seeing a time period and historical movement (westward expansion) that I read about all the time when I was young but finally getting some attention from different perspectives.
November 15, 2025
Overall, not a bad tale and believable enough but I was not impressed or terribly engaged. I find Rhodes’ writing a little too sparse; there is a lack of historical detail and specificity which I consider essential in historical fiction. The narrator for the audiobook affected a very strong accent which I found distracting and irksome, forcing me back to the physical book and I’m kinda sorry I didn’t just dnf now.
February 4, 2025
Do you have the courage to hold what's yours? What stories do you know about your family's home, heritage, and experiences of getting to where you live now? Are your parents and relatives storytellers or are they the type that keep things to themselves? When you're a grown-up, what stories about your now will you tell?
Will says the story he'll tell his son about the Oklahoma land rush is that it was "Boring, but mostly treacherous, [with] killer men, killer snakes, and a killer river."
It seems to me that most of the "Little House on the Prairie" type books (and I commend to you Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park, and classics Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink and The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare head and shoulders over Little House) are about established homes, sometimes even with neighbors and a town. The getting there, with a very real possibility of not getting anything (have you played Oregon Trail?), kept the intensity fierce.
Will says the story he'll tell his son about the Oklahoma land rush is that it was "Boring, but mostly treacherous, [with] killer men, killer snakes, and a killer river."
It seems to me that most of the "Little House on the Prairie" type books (and I commend to you Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park, and classics Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink and The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare head and shoulders over Little House) are about established homes, sometimes even with neighbors and a town. The getting there, with a very real possibility of not getting anything (have you played Oregon Trail?), kept the intensity fierce.
April 17, 2025
Middle grade western for kids with black characters that is a page turner! Jewell Parker Rhodes is a master at writing high interest books for this age group and Will's Race for Home also provides learning about the land rush in Oklahoma in the 1800's. Good historical fiction for middle grade!
May 25, 2025
I love this author. She writes strong characters into her stories about POC. I had high hopes for this one, originally looking at it for a summer book choice for my students. While I loved the idea of exposing kids to the history surrounding indentured servitude and the Civil War that brought out feelings of revenge amongst some southerners and Oklahoma’s famed land run thanks to the stealing of Native American lands, I wasn’t impressed by the writing itself. It read a little perfunctory and that’s not the kind of book that I want to present to my students as a gold standard in writing. A+ for the content. C for the writing.
January 28, 2025
Any upper elementary student who needs to read historical fiction would enjoy this book. Lots of action-good amount of white space in text format and some illustrations. Non biased representation of late 1880s history.
Read
January 29, 2025This a fantastic western for kids. Cowboys and horses and guns but also a really nice deeper meaning!
March 22, 2025
Middle graders will love this action-packed adventure/historical fiction story.
March 30, 2025
Excellent middle grade coming of age historical fiction about the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889, with Civil War experiences fueling the characters' motivation.
April 11, 2025
Quickly-paced | Fathers and sons | Frontier life (appeal terms from NoveList) - Emma
June 26, 2025
Action packed adventure as Will and his dad go north from Texas to claim land in the Oklahoma land rush. And excellent historical fiction story that also has character development and tough choices.
December 2, 2025
I love the history this highlighted but it wasn’t the most riveting story. Still, it’s an important one to be told.
December 30, 2025
Rhodes does middle grade historical fiction like no one else! I’m always happy to read a new book by this author!
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