Mosier, Paul.
TRAIN I RIDE
New York : HarperCollins, 2017
IL 3-6, RL 4.4
ISBN 978-0062455734

Twelve-year-old Rydr is a survivor. She spent her childhood with a drug addicted mother who had many “public embarrassments” that often resulted in Rydr being placed with social services or sent to live with her chain-smoking grandmother until her mom got out of jail. The temporary stays at her grandmother’s house in the ugly part of Palm Springs become permanent when Rydr’s mother dies from an overdose. But California isn’t home for long. When Rydr’s grandmother dies, Rydr is sent on a train bound for Chicago to live with a great-uncle she’s never met. Ryder is hungry and alone. She spends the small stipend social services gives her for food on her journey at the terminal before even boarding the train. Wanting to hide that she is broke and hungry, Rydr devises crafty money-making schemes to buy food from the train’s cafe car. It is through these money-making escapades that Rydr meets people who will forever change her life and be changed by her and where she’ll understand what family means.   (Vermont DCF Award nominee, 2018-2019)