A young girl journeys by train from Oklahoma to California in 1948 to begin a new life with her family, and finds there people of all ages and races, new tastes and sounds, and a joyous welcome.

Penny, a blue-eyed palomino paint mare, narrates her experiences with her owner, Buckeye Jack, and Jack's grandson, Jesse, during the 1850s Northern California gold rush.

Rhyming text tells how Charley became one of the best stagecoach drivers in the West, joined a men's club, and voted in a presidential election, all while disguising the fact that she was a woman.

"Rita Takemitsu is a newly single mother raising her daughter in 1980's Toronto. When her mother, Lily, goes missing, Rita sets out to find her. In the course of her quest, Rita uncovers a host of secrets surrounding her mother's internment at a camp in the California desert during the Second World War and the truth about her mysterious father."--