The Orphan Band of Springdale

About this book

Nesbet deftly weaves disparate elements music orphans labor unions carrier pigeons and a magic wish into a richly developed story. Publishers Weekly (starred review) Its 1941 and tensions are rising in the United States as the Second World War rages in Europe. Eleven-year-old Gustas life like the world around her is about to change. Her father a foreign-born labor organizer has fled the country and Gusta has been sent to live in an orphanage run by her grandmother. Nearsighted snaggletoothed Gusta arrives in Springdale Maine lugging her one precious possession: a beloved old French horn her sole memento of her father. But in a family thats long on troubles and short on money how can a girl hang on to something so valuable and yet so useless when Gustas mill-worker uncle needs surgery to fix his mangled hand? Inspired by her mothers fanciful stories Gusta secretly hopes to find the coin-like Wish that her sea-captain grandfather supposedly left hidden. Meanwhile even as Gusta gets to know the rambunctious orphans at the home she feels like an outsider and finds herself facing patriotism turned to prejudice alien registration drives and a family secret likely to turn the small town upside down.