Oscar’s Gift by Lisa Rivero

GoodReads Summary:

The year is 1904 on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, and eleven-year-old Tomas, the son of Swedish immigrants, thinks that life is a game of chance. Now you see it. Now you don’t. His father. School. Dreams for the future. It doesn’t matter how hard he tries or how much he hopes. In the end, everything he loves can disappear with the delivery of a telegram.

Then one hot day, on a dusty street in Bonesteel, South Dakota, he sees a tall, dark, city-slicker of a man as they both are trying their luck in a land lottery. Tomas does not know that he has just met the man who will one day write novels about his homesteading life on the Great Plains and be known as America’s first African-American feature film maker. Oscar will also become his friend and mentor.

Could it be that Tomas’s luck is changing?

OSCAR’S GIFT uses a classic style and historical photographs to bring the diversity of history alive for modern young readers.

Oscar’s Gift is a wonderfully crafted story that takes place in South Dakota during the early 1900’s. While Lisa speaks of Oscar’s gift, she has her own way with words and works them like the masters worked oil, watercolour, clay, and stone.  She has and uncanny way of bringing the story to life with characters and settings are so well crafted they can be seen with your heart.  Oscar’s Gift kept me totally engaged and I read it from cover to cover with out setting it down.

This is a charming story, and I recommend it highly to everyone.