From the Bookshelf of Tyler Public Library…

[close] Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd ekes out a living by traveling throughout Texas in the years following the Civil War, reading news articles from a plethora of local, state and international newspapers. Hungry for news of the world, Texans flock to hear the distinguished, silver –haired, cranky septuagenarian, whenever he appears in their midst.

On one such evening in Wichita Falls, after reading the news, the Captain is approached by a freed slave, Britt Johnson, who is traveling with a 10 year old orphan German-American girl. Johanna Leonberger was taken captive at age six, when her parents and younger sister were slaughtered by a Kiowa raiding party. Now, four years later, she has been returned (sold) by the Kiowa to the Army for a few blankets and some old silverware. The child must somehow be returned to her Aunt and Uncle who live, west of San Antonio, a trip of over 400 miles, and Johnson, as a black man, is reluctant to be traveling with a white girl child through territory still reeling from the aftermath of the Civil War. Capt. Kipp like Johnson, so despite his better instincts, he agrees to convey the brave and spirited Johanna back to her only surviving relatives. Their journey is filled with danger,

In News of the World, Jiles paints with a fine brush the land, the era, the characters and a population on the cusp of transition from Native American, Spanish and European powers. Johanna is not an easy child. She remembers nothing of her previous life and now, separated from her Kiowa family is rebellious, angry and frightened. “"Torn from her parents, adopted by a strange culture, given new parents, then sold for a few blankets and some old silverware, now sent to stranger after stranger, crushed into peculiar clothing, surrounded by people of an unknown language and an unknown culture, only ten years old, and now she could not even eat her food without having to use outlandish instruments."

I loved this book. It’s simply the perfect Western, and a story that can be enjoyed by all.

Highly recommended.