When his father becomes ill, nine-year-old Ben leaves boarding school in Portland, where he's been since his mother's death the previous year, and returns to his family's home in the Oregon Territory to help his older brother and sister take care of Father and run the farm. The "fit of palsy" Father suffered has left him as helpless as an infant, unable to feed himself, clean himself, or communicate in any way. Caring for Father, Ben desperately looks for signs of improvement - the smallest movement, the tiniest sound. Finally, he determines that if he, Nettie and Harrison construct - with no one's help - the barn that Father had wanted so badly to build, Father will have something to live for. It is Ben's trust that this barn - this gift - will make Father better that is at the heart of this bittersweet story of determination and faith as only a child knows them. (Ages 9-12)

This moving story historical novel from master storyteller Avi will reach the wide audience it deserves with its beautiful and compelling new cover treatment.

Ben is away at school when his father mysteriously falls ill in the spring of 1855. With no adults to help, he and his brother and sister must take over the family farm in Oregon Territory's rugged Willamette Valley. Despite his siblings' doubts, Ben is determined to build the barn Father had planned, in the hope of waking him from his silent, frozen state. But will it be enough?