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Two Roads

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Two Roads 
By Joseph Bruchac 
Dial Books for Young Readers, 2018. 320 p. 

Cal and his dad have been riding the rails for about a year—ever since Cal’s mother passed away. Times are tough and the Great Depression is well, depressing. Cal’s father served in the Great War (WWI) and has a bond that will give them money—eventually. But it doesn’t help now. Soon his dad takes Cal to a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school in Oklahoma so that he can in turn go to Washington D.C. and petition President Hoover (with all the other war veterans) to get their owed veteran’s bonus money. While at school Cal learns about his Creek Indian heritage (that his dad had hidden from him up until right before taking him to school). Cal is strong and honorable, like how his father taught him. This is a story that shows that it is good to be kind and honorable even in hard circumstances. It is good to stand up for truth and what is owed to you. But most important of all it is good to know who you are and where you come from and how that can help you figure out where you should go and what you should do. The world needs more people like Cal.
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