Tom and Annie Edmonston Hunter (Nana and Pops)
Aunt Mary Louise Terry
Aunt Marjorie Peterson Minton
Uncle Keith Hunter
Uncle Harbert Hunter
Aunt Frances Heyck
The world’s best brothers, sisters, and All-Texas Pep Squad: David and Terri Nelson, Frances and Tim Arnoult, Hunter and Betsy Nelson, Mary Pat and Marty Gross, Carroll and Jeff Patrizi, Annie and Wayne Kansas, Jane and Joe Bob Kinsel, James and Cindy Nelson, John Henry Nelson, William Joseph Nelson
David and Theresa Patricia Cullen Nelson (our Gran, his darling girl)
Sister Mary Davidica Nelson, O.P. (Aunt Mary)
Father James A. Nelson (Uncle Jim)
Aunt Jane Nelson White
Aunt Patricia Phelan Milam
Father John Regis Stacer, S.J. (Cousin Johnny)
Elizabeth Cullen Nelson, fearless left-hand turner
Cousin Janice White Ondrusek, champion family chronicler
My extraordinary teachers: Sister Emily Bordages, Sister Francis Clare (Clare Mead Rosen), and Sister JoAnn Neihaus, O.P.
Mitali Perkins
Sid Fleischman
Christoper Paul Curtis
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, the great-hearted, and everyone at PEN/America, whose Working Writer Fellowship came as such a tremendous encouragement when it was most needed
Jillian Hartke, Todd Christine, Seth Smith, Jason Stratman, and all the wonderfully helpful people at the State Historical Society of Missouri
Bonnie J. Morgan at the Montana Historical Society, and Carole Richards at the Powder River County Courthouse, Broadus, Montana, who helped us locate Miss Cora Downey’s homestead
Legions of librarians—my heroes—in particular those at the Beverly Hills Public Library and the Los Angeles Public Library (downtown and at the Sherman Oaks, Studio City, and Fairfax branches)
Douglas E. Abrams, for his book A Very Special Place in Life: The History of Juvenile Justice in Missouri, The Missouri Juvenile Justice Association, OJJDP, 2003
James Neal Primm, for Lion of the Valley: St. Louis, Missouri, 1765–1980, 3rd edition, St. Louis, Missouri Historical Society Press, distributed by the University of Missouri Press, 1998
Robert Kinsey Howard, for Montana: High, Wide and Handsome, Yale University, 1944
Robert Hunt, for his gorgeous jacket painting
Sonia Chaghatzbanian, for her graceful book design
Ariel Colletti, Jessica Sit, Kaitlin Severini, Clare McGlade, and the whole terrific team at Atheneum and Simon & Schuster
And thanks most of all, forever and always:
To my favorite dancers and storytellers—the finest and funniest, bravest and best—my parents, Carroll and David Nelson of Beaumont, Texas
To Kevin, my rock, and our children and grandchildren: Michael Christopher, Brian David, Errol Andrew (who helped me with Julia’s music) and Erin Elizabeth Cooney; Mick, Stella Carroll, Everett Walter, and Cullen Michael
And to Richard Jackson, that dear, stubborn man, my incomparable editor and friend, who refused to stop believing that Julia would make it to Montana—once again—against all odds.
Theresa Nelson has written seven novels for young readers—among them The 25¢ Miracle, And One for All, Ruby Electric, and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Book Earthshine.
This latest book was inspired by the real childhood of her husband’s mother. For more true-to-history details, such as the October 7, 1911, St. Louis Browns versus Detroit Tigers baseball game, or the memorable weather of the 1912 winter, see the Author’s Note inside.
The mother of three adult sons and grandmother of four—three boys and a blue-eyed girl—Theresa Nelson lives with her husband, actor Kevin Cooney, in Houston, Texas. Visit her at TheresaNelson.net.
A Richard Jackson Book
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Simon & Schuster • New York
Meet the author, watch videos, and get extras at
KIDS.SimonandSchuster.com
authors.simonandschuster.com/Theresa-Nelson
ALSO BY THE AUTHOR
Devil Storm
And One for All
The Beggars’ Ride
Earthshine
The Empress of Elsewhere
Ruby Electric
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ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2015 by Theresa Nelson
Jacket design by Sonia Chaghatzbanian
Jacket illustration copyright © 2015 by Robert Hunt
The hymn “In the Bleak Midwinter” (pp. 270–272) is taken from the poem (of the same name) by Christina Rossetti.
Title page and Part I photos are used with permission of the
Part II photo is a vintage postcard, courtesy of the Missouri State Archives.
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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Book design by Sonia Chaghatzbanian
The text for this book is set in Fournier MT Std.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nelson, Theresa, 1948-
The year we sailed the sun / Theresa Nelson.
pages cm
Summary: In St. Louis, Missouri, in 1911, orphaned eleven-year-old Julia Delaney rails against countless disappointments and the nun’s strict rules at the House of Mercy, especially after her sister Mary turns fourteen and must leave, but she, her family, and best friend get tangled up with a gangster and a decade-old mystery.
ISBN 978-0-689-85827-7 (hardcover) — ISBN 978-1-4814-0649-9 (eBook)
[1. Orphanages—Fiction. 2. Orphans—Fiction. 3. Nuns—Fiction. 4. Behavior—Fiction. 5. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. 6. Gangsters—Fiction. 7. St. Louis (Mo.)—History—20th century—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.N4377Ye 2015
[Fic]—dc23 2014034956