"Set in New Mexico in the early 1980s, Hawkins's children's book debut is rich with details that feel drawn from memory (an engineering professor who worked on his family's orchard as a child, Hawkins also contributes schematic line drawings), and Jackson's narration sparkles. His hard work, setbacks, and motivations make this a highly relatable adventure in entrepreneurship."--Publishers Weekly —
Description
With frostbitten fingers, sleepless nights and sore muscles, 14-year-old Jackson Jones and his posse of cousins discover the lost art of winging it when they take over an orchard of 300 wild apple trees. They know nothing about pruning or irrigation or pest control, but figure it out they must—if they are to avoid losing $8,000 (because of an unfair contract).
With spot illustrations for mechanical-loving readers—the gears of a tractor, a plow with disks—and with mathematical calculations of the great mount of money to be earned, this novel has the sort of can-do spirt and sense of earned independence not often found in today's fiction.
