Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

His biracial heritage is among the obstacles twelve-year-old Colton faces as he and his family travel west in 1860. When his family fails to reach California before winter, Colton joins the Pony Express to pay his mother's medical bills; to do this, he must ""pass"" as white amid growing racial and political turmoil. A fast pace brings this slice of history to life. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

On the eve of the Civil War, Colton Wescott is "a boy with a foot in each of two worlds—the black and the white, the slave and the free, the East and the West." On his way west by wagon train, Colton is shot by his father who disappears, and the family eventually stalls before making it to California. But Colton sees a poster advertising for Pony Express riders and sees a chance to become a man in his father's place. He'll relay freedom papers from his mother to her sister in Sacramento and carry an important message from Washington about a plot to blow up forts and steal ammunition in an attempt to support the South in the coming war. Driving the historic Pony Express route, visiting museums and bookstores and reading journals, letters and obituaries, Wilson has done the research to make the story alive and immediate. An exciting story written with style. (map, author's note) (Fiction. 10-14) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.