Community Read Discussion

"This Tender Land" is Krueger’s first standalone novel since 2013 and tells the story of four children –all orphans – who embark on a bold and dangerous journey during the summer of 1932. They are fleeing a place of loss and cruelty — and a crime that one of them committed. The means of their escape is a canoe which takes them down the Gilead River in Minnesota, on their way to the mighty Mississippi, in search of a possible home in St. Louis.

The book also explores an overlooked piece of American history — the Native American boarding schools that were a fixture around the United States until the 1960s. These were schools, rife with abuse and hardship, where Native American children were sent to live apart from their families and communities, forced to assimilate into white culture.

Both Sauk Prairie libraries will have free copies of these books starting September 4th. For more information please email spcan535@gmail.com or find SP CAN on Facebook.