
Holiday House, 2014; paperback distributed by Penguin Random House
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0823429486
Paperback ISBN: 978-0823440047
E-book ISBN: 978-0823431564
Amazon Kindle: ASIN: B00ID50MPC
Recently freed from indentured servitude, sixteen-year-old Daniel Linnehan sets out with his beloved horse, Ivy, to make a new start in life. Although he should be excited about his hard-won liberty, he’s been told what to do for so long that he hardly knows where to begin. It doesn’t help that, in 19th-century New England, his Irishness is enough to get him labeled a liar and a thief . . . or worse.
When rumors incite a violent mob against Daniel, a peddler and roving jack-of-all-trades named Jonathan Stocking saves his life. Assisting Mr. Stocking is young Billy Fogarty, a gifted singer and former pickpocket whom Mr. Stocking rescued from an abusive father. The peddler sees more in these two Irish misfits than they can see in themselves—or in each other—and becomes a father figure to them as they travel together.
This trio of outcasts meets up with a traveling circus, where an old friend of Mr. Stocking’s invites them to join the show. Daniel discovers his own talents as a horse whisperer after an incompetent trainer abandons the show’s six dancing ponies. Meanwhile, Billy becomes the company’s star vocalist. With Mr. Stocking guiding Daniel’s horse-training efforts and coaching Billy’s singing, the three grow from traveling companions into a peculiar sort of family, and Daniel begins to heal his broken life.
But a dangerous secret threatens to tear the traveling companions apart. And one of them must make a decision that could change their lives forever.
From the publisher: “This deeply moving sequel to A Difficult Boy weaves an indelible piece of historical fiction into a gripping adventure that explores themes of patience, courage, kindness, and the true meaning of family.”

Holiday House, 2014; paperback distributed by Penguin Random House
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0823429486
Paperback ISBN: 978-0823440047
E-book ISBN: 978-0823431564
Amazon Kindle: ASIN: B00ID50MPC