It is 1870, North Texas, rainy and cold. Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels from town to town giving readings from the latest newspapers, bringing the news of the world to isolated towns on the Texas frontier. In Wichita Falls, he is asked to return a captive girl to her relatives near San Antonio, 400 miles to the south. The old man and the ten-year-old start out on a hazardous journey, no less risky because the girl considers herself now a Kiowa and does not have the slightest desire to return. Bandits and Comanche raids and violent weather make as many difficulties as the ten-year old girl who can’t speak English, eats with her hands and knows how to use a revolver. In the end, he finds he must return her to relatives who don’t want her, even though he and the girl have become trusting friends. A story of courage and honor and the truth that these two things are often the possession of even the unlikeliest people.
Note: The author does not use quotation marks in the book.
!n an interview with the Sacramento Bee, the author was asked about the lack of quotation marks. Her response was, "Using quote marks is like surrounding human speech with barbed wire. I figured if I was careful enough about how I placed sentences, readers would be able to do without quote marks and I would be freed up. It’s an aesthetic thing, I guess, but I like the effect."
-According to a reviewer on Goodreads.com
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