One Big Open Sky by Lesa Kline-Ransom (March 2024, Holiday House) is a free verse historical fiction novel about Black covered wagon pioneers in 1879. It features a young Black girl and her family, told from her perspective and that of her mother and another young woman. They journey from a sharecropping atmosphere in Mississippi to the open territory of Nebraska in a covered wagon. The journey is dangerous and difficult, but these young women find the strength to persevere and stand up to the men around them as they succeed in their journey and face the future.
It’s such a great premise and the characters are strong. But I found the book tedious to read. The free verse was almost completely devoid of punctuation. Dialogue is presented in italics. Without punctuation it was sometimes hard to follow who was speaking. The narration alternated among the three women. Although I liked the characters, the story, and the setting, the structure just made it difficult to read. I’ve read plenty of free verse novels, but this was not my style. The stanzas were too devoid of structure.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance review copy of this book provided by the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
