Kansas City Calling

Book excerpt: As his family scatters far and wide, sixteen-year-old John Gannon is ready for his next adventure. After he travels to Kansas City to attend high school, he successfully enables his athletically gifted American Indian friends, James Blue Eagle and Mercury Monet, to be accepted at the same school. Inspired by dreams of attending college in North Carolina and becoming a writer, John immerses himself in his classes and the high school track team. But when his Indian friends are brutally attacked, John advises them to return to their South Dakota reservation for protection. Instead, they choose France at the height of World War I where they become known as the Moles. Alone, John faces off with a bully and pursues his writing dreamsuntil the flu pandemic brings Kansas City to its knees. As tragedy strikes the Gannon family and the Great Depression begins, John enters college where he must cope with a fracturing family, financial hardship, and a bold decision that will stun everyone around him. In this continuing saga, a young man intent on achieving his American dream must learn to survive within tumultuous times as the world deals with war, disease, and financial challenges greater than anyone ever imagined.