So begins the tale of Billy Creekmore, a boy with mystifying powers and the glorious gift of storytelling. But what does life hold for someone growing up in the cruel clutches of the Guardian Angels Home for Boys, where Billy’s gifts do more harm than good?
Escaping the orphanage seems an impossible feat, but when a stranger comes to claim Billy, he sets off on an extraordinary journey. With only a tin box that holds precious mementos of his beloved mother and mysterious father, Billy travels from the coal mines of West Virginia to the spectacular world of a traveling circus in search of his past, his future, and his own true self.
In this Trailblazer Book, a young English boy is sold to be trained as a chimney sweep and his rescued by his brother with the help of John Wesley.
The journey begins in the poor mining country of West Virginia, where small David hopes that one day he will be a coal-miner like his father and his grandfather. But after an explosion in the mine, David’s father leaves to look for safer work elsewhere. When he sends for the family to join him in Jericho, California, the journey begins. The story focuses on the terrible risks of mining, on a small boy’s yearning for his father, and of the difficulties of leaving the familiar for the unknown. It also focuses on a jar of Grandma May’s prize-winning pickles, which David is entrusted to guard.
In the Wyoming territory in 1885, life is tough, especially for Michael Purdy. An outcast in the small town of Rock Springs, he’s either bullied and bloodied, or ignored. Michael feels he might as well be a ghost in this rough coal-mining town.
