A Boy, His Mule and Dog — Sean Patrick O'Mordha

Samuel's mother's dying wish is for him to find his brother Louis who left several years earlier to fight for the Confederacy in Texas, and whom they had not heard from. With his mother's Bible, the close on his back, Rooster and Coon his only companions, and the bare scratchings of education, 13-year-old Samuel sets out not even sure where Texas is located except somewhere south. He has to learn up on the world he is entering if to survive and find Louis. It's a journey that takes him through outlaw Missouri, across Indian Territory, and the desert Southwest, toward Tucson in the New Mexico Territory, where he meets the Mescalero Apache and comes to grips with who and what he has become.