One Came Home

Good historical fiction. Just wish that the main character weren't such a little snit that you wanted to take across your knee.

Interesting facts about pidgeoning, counterfeiting, and a surprise ending.

Georgie doesn't believe her sister Agatha is dead. Agatha ran away from home a few weeks ago, and now the sheriff has brought back a badly mutilated body found in the woods, wearing the remains of Agatha's dress and with the same auburn hair. Thirteen-year-old Georgie feels that there's more to the

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story of Agatha's disappearance. She rents a mule from Billy McCabe, her sister's former sweetheart, and sets out to find the truth. Of course, she doesn't plan on Billy tagging along -- and that's only the first unexpected occurrence on a journey fraught with mystery and, occasionally, danger. Will Georgie ever learn exactly what happened to Agatha? Is this trip about finding her sister, or is it about coming to terms with her sister's death?

This well-researched and well-written piece of historical fiction is well-deserving of the honors it has received. Set in 1871 Wisconsin, the story is told against the backdrop of the passenger pigeon migration. The characters are fully rounded and always interesting, though not always likable. Some of the events in the final chapter feel tacked on for the sake of historical interest rather than being essential to the plot, but all in all this is an impressive novel, and I hope to see more by this author in the future.

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I thoroughly enjoyed this well-written novel about a young girl, Georgina (Georgie), who does not believe her older sister Agatha is dead from a violent crime. Historical fiction is my wheelhouse and I am incredibly picky; I think the author did a tremendous job mixing the two. Pigeons play a large

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symbolic role in the novel without dragging it down (who thinks pigeons are interesting, really?).
My complaint, however, lies with the ending. Naturally, I will not spoil it here, but I think the author should have left it alone with the original trains of thought instead of wrapping it too nicely for younger readers. It seemed saccharine and unrealistic.

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What a voice! Our young heroine simply soars. I love this book - what a gem to read

[One Came Home] by [Amy Timberlake] is a highly acclaimed book. I really liked the historic aspects. I did not know people hunted pigeons. Also the character of Georgie is a strong, headed individual. I just felt the first half of the book was like a soap opera. I wanted more details about events

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and less about the relationship muddle of her sister. I like my historic fiction to have more history.

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ABOUT: Georgia is a young 13 year old girl who doesn't believe that her sister is dead. A dead body was brought home and everyone believes that it's Agatha. Is it really? Well Georgia sets out on an adventure to find out for herself. Along the way she has some help from her sisters old boyfriend

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Billy.
REVIEW: What a great story. It's a historical fiction, so it was fun thinking about it being during an older time period and not so modern. Also it had a great story line that kept me reading from beginning to end. The mystery starts at the beginning and it's never certain what is really happening till the end. Finally it's a sweet story about sisters. Georgia loves her sister so much she is willing to go out there in the wild to find her. And along the way, we hear stories about Agatha. So it's not like the main character is just Georgia, we also get a look into the character of Agatha.
The Bad: Hmm.... not really sure what I didn't like about this book. Not the all time best book I've ever read, but it was much better than what I was suspecting. It's a great mystery and adventure story. I guess the main thing I didn't like was the ending. It wasn't bad but..... well guess I can't really go into details without ruining it for you. You might understand if you read it.
Will Georgia find Agatha? What really happened? What is the story behind Billy? Read "One Came Home" to find out.

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I enjoyed reading about this time period. And as someone else has said, I think this is a great companion to True Grit for younger readers.

Thirteen-year-old Georgie Burkhardt can shoot better than anyone in Placid, Wisconsin. She can handle accounts and serve customers in her family’s general store. What she can’t do is accept that the unrecognizable body wearing her older sister’s blue-green gown is Agatha. Thus begins what’s

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a sometimes sad, occasionally scary and thoroughly engrossing story of a girl on the cusp of growing up who is riddled with guilt because she thinks her rash decision to tell on her older sister was the reason she ran off with some pigeon chasers, people following the monster flocks of passenger pigeons so they can kill and harvest them for meat and plumage. She refuses to believe the body parts retrieved by the local sheriff can be her beloved sister, even though the dress fragments match the one her sister was wearing when she vanished.
There are several things that make this an engrossing read. Georgie’s struggle to be a normal girl while striking out with her sister’s sort of boyfriend Billy, her having to deal with rotten pigeons and pigeon poop, her getting stuck with Billy’s mule, her coolness when she has to shoot at bad guys and mostly, her out and out pluckiness. It’s easy to see why this has already become a Newberry Honor Book. An excellent book for juvenile readers who like mysteries and/or historical fiction.

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A Newbery Honor book. It is 1871, and flocks of wild pigeons have just blanketed the sky in Placid, Wisconsin. Tom-boy and sharpshooter Georgie must help her mother and grandfather identify what’s left of her sister Agatha’s body. She recognizes Agatha’s prized blue and green silk dress and

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auburn hair, but she is sure the body is not her sister’s. With her sister’s former suitor Billy, Georgie sets out on a dangerous journey to follow Agatha’s trail from Placid, uncovering a murderous counterfeiting ring as she contemplates her own role in Agatha’s disappearance during the weeks prior. An mesmerizing and beautifully-written story with a tough but innocent heroine who will captivate young readers. A note by the author at the book’s end explains the book’s historical context of the largest wild pigeon nesting in history and fires along Lake Michigan that brought many displaced families to Wisconsin in the 1870s. Recommended. Ages 10-14.

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One Came Home follows the story of a thirteen-year-old girl in 1871 who makes a journey to a neighboring town to find out the truth about her sister, who disappeared and is believed dead. This already has all the trappings of a great young adult novel: a strong female character who accomplishes

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great things, a smattering of history, and a strong plot following it.

However, it never quite lived up to its promise.

Georgie, the main character, was rather dull, honestly. She's a sharpshooter, which held promise, but the climax, where this should have been her crowning achievement, dwells too much on other things to really put the moment into focus. She ends up having a revelatory moment, but it feels forced and only makes sense if you squint and suspend your reasoning skills for a moment. It would have been more potent if she had the revelation after the climax, as a fitting sort of epilogue, but instead the plot meanders into an epilogue and throws in some things which, while interesting, are distracting and not really germane, then comes a resolution. The effect was too spread out to have much more of an impact, and honestly, much of the last chapters could have been excised while still providing closure, and would have been the better for it.

While the ending felt drawn out, the first parts were too rushed - the setting never fully pops, other than a few passing nods to "Ma" and the Civil War. It never fully gives you the color of the time period, letting you feel like you're actually there. Additionally, points of interest are risen and dropped abruptly, while other incidents - particularly the ending, which I won't spoil - strain suspension of disbelief.

The mystery itself of what happened to her sister, is wrapped up, but almost in passing.

All in all, it was a decent book, but not one likely to leave any real impact.

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Took me a couple of attempts to get through this one, but I'm glad I kept trying. I thought it was very good, but suffered from having a little too much going on. The fire refugee stuff at the end felt particularly tacked on - like it was only there because that happened the same year as the

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pigeons so Timberlake tried to make it fit through the theme of Georgie learning mercy. Georgie's voice was strong and I enjoyed the twists and turns of the mystery surrounding Agatha's disappearance.

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I recognized the narrator's voice from a couple of cartoons I had seen which was kind of funny and made it a little hard to concentrate sometimes. Georgie is an engaging character and it was a very exciting mystery. The author's notes were really interesting and I think I learned a lot from the all

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the historical detail included which makes me happy.

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While it took me a bit to get into the book, once I got into it I found myself anxious to find out what Georgie would uncover on her journey about her sister, Agatha. When a body is discovered with a piece of fabric on it that matches the dress that Agatha had custom made after the young woman

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leaves home, everyone assumes she is dead. Her sister doesn't believe it and is soon off on a journey to try to find the truth about her sister. Her companion on the journey is a stubborn mule, Long Ears, and Billy McCabe, her sister's former boyfriend.
A lot happens on the journey and at home while the duo, who have their shares of scrapes and injuries, is away. A satisfying ending. Some of the twists and turns seemed a bit far-fetched, but it was a fun journey. Put me in mind a little bit of the Misadventures of Maude March.

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I recognized the narrator's voice from a couple of cartoons I had seen which was kind of funny and made it a little hard to concentrate sometimes. Georgie is an engaging character and it was a very exciting mystery. The author's notes were really interesting and I think I learned a lot from the all

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the historical detail included which makes me happy.

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I recognized the narrator's voice from a couple of cartoons I had seen which was kind of funny and made it a little hard to concentrate sometimes. Georgie is an engaging character and it was a very exciting mystery. The author's notes were really interesting and I think I learned a lot from the all

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the historical detail included which makes me happy.

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Excellent story about a girl who is told her sister is dead. Even though the body the sheriff brought back looks like her sister, she knows it isn't so she sets off to solve the mystery of what really happened.

Georgie put me in mind of Mattie of "True Grit," all blunt and plainspoken and sure of herself, with a touch of self-deprecating humor when deserved. Part adventure, part mystery, part coming-of-age.

Seeing as I recently moved to Wisconsin, Amy Timberlake’s One Came Home, set in the fictional Placid, Wisconsin, in 1871, appealed to me. It follows Georgie Burkhardt, a tough, thirteen-year-old girl whose older sister, Agatha, has just turned up dead after running away a few days prior.

Or has

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she?

Georgie is not sure that the badly decomposed body–wrapped in the tattered remains of her sister Agatha’s blue ballgown–is actually Agatha’s. She knows that her sister was last seen with three pigeoners in Dog Hollow, Wisconsin, so she decides to borrow a horse (that turns out to be a mule) and head to Dog Hollow to investigate. She grudgingly accepts the company of Billy, the young man who had asked Agatha to marry him just a few days before she disappeared.

The two set off for Dog Hollow in the middle of the night, Georgie determined to find Agatha, and Billy determined to convince Georgie that Agatha is dead. On their journey, they encounter not only dangerous animals, but very dangerous people. Will they figure out what happened to Agatha, or will they disappear, too?

This YA historical fiction is a pretty fun read, and I especially enjoyed learning about the now-extinct passenger pigeons that used to descend on Wisconsin in droves. I didn’t much like Georgie, despite her rough-and-tumble attitude and her impressive sharpshooting skills, but the sense of place is great in this novel, and Georgie will surely appeal to many young readers.

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This Newbery honor book starts off a bit slow with a little too much detail about pigeons. However, once the story about Georgie's missing sister Agatha begins to take over, and Georgie and Billy go looking for her, the story begins to improve. Georgie's home is in Placid, Wisconsin so some of the

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action takes place there. It's a bit of an adventure, and some middle school readers are certain to enjoy it, but for others it will likely not resonate.

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This was okay, the language was strong and character development was good. I had a hard time caring about the main character.

13 year old Georgie's older sister is murdered in 1871. The body, which was shot in the face and then ravaged by wild animals, is buried. But Georgie is not convinced that the body they buried is actually her sister's and begins to quest to find the truth. She is accompanied by 19 year old Billy

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McCabe, a young man who she has trouble wrapping her mind around. Why has he forced himself on her as a companion for her journey.
As the mystery slowly unfolds, we grow more and more to love the intelligent, quick-tempered, rifle-wielding 13 year old narrator of the tale.

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middlegrade/teen fiction; historic fiction/adventure/mystery. Bits of it dragged on but most parts were interesting (even pretty exciting, towards the end)--overall a very well told story.

I recognized the narrator's voice from a couple of cartoons I had seen which was kind of funny and made it a little hard to concentrate sometimes. Georgie is an engaging character and it was a very exciting mystery. The author's notes were really interesting and I think I learned a lot from the all

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the historical detail included which makes me happy.

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I was skeptical of this story at first. The initial subject matter of wild pigeons and guns didn't appeal to me. I even found myself turned off by the tough as nails 13 year old character's voice and actions. But I stuck it out and the characters and the story started to pull me in. Eventually, I

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fell completely in love with the narrator and her kick ass perceptive, as well as the western-style story arch. It's a quick, exciting read.

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