HeartLand

By Jilanne Hoffmann Out of the Dust meets Me and Marvin Gardens in this coming-of-age novel about a young misfit searching for the truth of her family's past, set against the backdrop of an environmental cover-up. Twelve-year-old Xyla is sick of two things: working on her family's sixth-generation Iowa farm and her mother's nagging words, "Pay attention!" But Xyla can't help getting lost in the thoughts that fill her head, which sometimes leaves a wake of costly mistakes. If only her mom would tell her something— anything —about her dad, who left when she was little. Then maybe she could run away to live with him. Xyla's world gets even messier as a new family begins renting a vacant house on the farm, and the daughter is the kind of kid Xyla's mom clearly prefers—focused and motivated. But when the girls stumble across an environmental disaster right next door, Xyla must learn to trust her new friend and her own complicated mother to figure out how to stop it. Told in alternating timelines between the past and present, this heartfelt story brings to life a funny, hopeful, unforgettable narrator as she unravels the mysteries of her family and farm.

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