From the author of Eliza’s Freedom Road and Calico Girl (a Kirkus Best Book of the Year) comes a dramatic historical middle grade novel that is “a unique lens through which to examine the 1849 Gold Rush” (School Library Journal) following an enslaved girl taking the chance to find freedom on the Overland Trail to California.

Clementine is twelve years old and lady's maid to Elizabeth Barnett. Everyone calls her Clementine, but secretly her momma gives her the name Hope—because, as her momma says, "You are my hope." Momma's words give her faith that each new day will bring the promise of something better.

Her mistress taught Hope to read alongside her own children. Reading brings Hope great clarity and satisfaction. Each morning Hope reads the newspaper aloud to her mistress. One day Hope reads of the discovery of gold in California!

The family is grieving because Mister Clinton Barnett has died. The farm begins to fail. The eldest son, Jason, decides that he can help by traveling west by wagon train on the Overland Trail to California to mine for gold. Jason decides that Hope and her mother and father should come too, as he will need his household worker on the journey.

Harsh conditions of the wilderness and critical dependence on each other for survival disrupt the usual master and slave relationship. At last, is this a chance for freedom for Hope and her family?

From the author of Eliza's Freedom Road and Calico Girl comes a historical middle-grade adventure about an enslaved girl's journey on the Overland Trail to California during the gold rush, and how she took the chance to fight for freedom.

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