Adventure. Danger. Courage. The exciting tale of a young German settler in Texas in the 1840s. Everyone has secrets. Rika s are hidden in her new-fangled carrying purse. Texas, 1846. The last thing sixteen-year-old Frederika Mueller wanted to do was to leave her beautiful home in Germany for the rugged and mosquito-laden Texas frontier. Now, instead of singing lessons and her favorite dance shoes, she s stuck walking next to oxen and a covered wagon in the ugliest shoes imaginable...and listening to her little sister whine. With threats of Indian attacks and two mean criminals warning her they re watching her, could things get worse? But then, of course, there s Engel, from the next wagon over, who does chicken imitations of his mother, and Karl, a handsome and cocky German soldier who seems to have his eye on her. By Naomi Mitchum, the author of Harps in the Willows (used by Salvation Army counseling cetners after 9/11) and Fun with Drama and More Fun with Drama (Abingdon).