War Comes to Madeline

War was coming; it was 1861. Papa owned a tobacco plantation and slaves, but he freed them all when Tennessee voted to withdraw from the Union and become a part of the Confederacy. He couldn't go off to fight in the war knowing he owned other human beings. Twelve-year-old Madeline, older brother Matthew and oldest brother Sidney were to run the plantation with mama and the now freed, loyal Eb, Sukey and Ole Tom. The war was not short, as the South had thought and hoped it would be. Running the plantation changed from slave labor to a collaborative effort between family and freed blacks working for a small wage. Daily life changed from outwardly genteel to frank problem solving to keeping food on the table and harvesting the crop; to calculating to outwit the pillaging hungry soldiers form both sides; to diverting and dodging the slavers as the family conspired to move its precious human cargo to safety; and to praying that their men would return from the battle alive. Three years in war-torn Tennessee changed young Maddie, too. Always a curious observant, artist and vivacious child, she became an expert rider with a purpose, a smuggler of runaway slaves to a safe stop on the Underground Railroad, and, at least once, the youngest female Confederate spy in Tennessee. War Come To Madeline is a fast-reading, action-packed story that will keep young adult readers with it from first page to last. This is Bev Martin's first novel. She is a resident of Arizona.Martin, Bev is the author of 'War Comes to Madeline' with ISBN 9780880924634 and ISBN 0880924632.