Tomorrow the River

It's 1896 and 14-year-old Megan Barnett leaves her family in Nebraska to be a mother's helper for her sister Hannah, who lives with her husband and young son on a Mississippi River steamboat traveling toward St. Paul. Her adventure begins as soon as she boards the train, where a charming college student sits next to her. Later she encounters assorted scoundrels and river rats, and when her brother-in-law is injured in an accident, Megan has to pitch in in ways she didn't anticipate. She learns to swim, navigate the river, fish, take photographs, and nurse her brother-in-law back to health. The story has a fast moving plot with bits of history and river lore woven in, and could be a good read-aloud. This book won the 2007 Minnesota Book Award.