News of the World by Paulette Jiles

Jiles is known as a poet and a memoirist and draws on both talents to tell this story of an unlikely friendship in Texas in 1870. Captain Kidd earned his rank in the Civil War but at the age of 70 he earns his living reading the news to small towns around Texas.  When he is asked to return a ten year old girl, Johanna, who was captured by the Kiowa four years earlier, he isn't sure he is up to the long journey from Wichita Falls to San Antonio.  Although there are many adventures along the way, the bigger story is Kidd's understanding of Johanna and the many children like her.  Conventional wisdom then said that captives like Johanna were brutally treated by "savages" but Kidd sees something very different.  Johanna is a clever, free spirit and as they begin to form a bond, Kidd begins to think that returning her to her rigid aunt and uncle might not be what is best.  Jiles did a lot of research on both the times and the real truth of captive children.  The story rings so true and the idea of a time when the news would only be shared by a rich voice bringing news from places the listeners could only imagine sounds so much better then the information overload of today.