Dust storms, rabbit drives, hobo camps, and riding on freight trains were all a part of life for many throughout the Midwest during the Great Depression. Polio and many other diseases had not yet been conquered and the huge dust storms that killed livestock and ruined crops also caused life-threatening respiratory ailments, such as asthma and pneumonia. In the spring of 1935, thirteen-year-old Brady Foster's family is forced to leave their "dusted out" wheat farm in southwest Kansas when his mother's asthma takes a turn for the worst. Deciding her only hope lies in California's cleaner air, Brady and his little autistic sister are sent to live with their grandfather, a county sheriff in the northcentral part of the state, until their parents can return. In his new school, Brady is bullied and ostracized, but he finds a friend in Eddie Peel, the son of the town drunk, a boy with a pet crow. Selected for the Kansas State Reading Circle Catalog and Winner of the J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award