Tractor
Ryan Uytdewilligen
(Sartoris Literary Group, Sept. 14, 2016)
Set in Oklahoma in 1961, a small town teen named John gets a spur of the moment job driving an old tractor across Arkansas to Oklahoma for a crotchety old farmer. John is about to enter his senior year of high school and has doubts about his future and the kind of man he wants to be. Unbeknownst to him, this trip will be just what he needs to figure all that out. We follow John as he picks up the tractor in Arkansas, then makes his way across hot, crowded Southern highways, on which he experiences breakdowns, fights, mishaps, and even love. It is no easy task to complete this job, but the pitfalls and chance meetings along the way might just take him where he’s destined to go. John's belief in God beats down on him like the hot sun, while the fantasies of a mysterious girl he meets along the way flash through his mind. John is lost both literally and figuratively, but the people he meets along the winding roads give him more direction than he ever thought possible. John just wanted to earn some money to buy his first truck. Instead, he discovered the meaning of life.For young adult readers who have an affinity for farm life—and grand adventures.