THE ROAD FROM NOWHERE, By Avi, Scholastic Press, Jan. 6, 2026, Hardcover, $19.99 (ages 8-12)
Three kids hope to make it big during Colorado’s Silver Panic in 1893 in The Road From Nowhere, a middle-grade novel by Avi.
There’s one road in Gatchett’s Gluch―population forty-five―a silver mining town in the high Colorado desert. That means there’s only one way in and one way out.
Fourteen-year-old Ollie feels trapped and restless, desperate to find his own lode of silver, so he can gain riches and get his family out of the town. As the man of the house, he feels that’s his job, just as his younger brother Gus’s job is to ask question after question. Though Ollie is unwilling to admit it, he doesn’t have all the answers. He can’t even read, unlike Alys, the only girl and only friend he has outside of Gus.
Meanwhile, a man who calls himself a geologist has arrived in town. Not only can he read books, he can read rocks, the first person that Ollie has ever seen who looks at rocks with fascination, not desperation. Most important, he knows how to stake a silver claim. So when Ollie, Gus, and Alys stumble upon a cave rich with silver and form a friendship with that geologist, the future suddenly looks good. The problem: Elijah Gatchett runs the Gulch and claims all its silver. Men have been kicked out―or shot at―for seeking it on their own. But for the kids, the only thing worse than their families staying under Gatchett’s thumb is getting run out of town with not so much as a penny in their pockets.
The kids are desperate to find an answer. It may lay in that dark cave. How Ollie, Gus, and Alys navigate all this―with a surprising ending―is an old-west adventure that has never been told before. —Synopsis provided by Scholastic Press
The Road From Nowhere transports readers to a time of economic crisis centered on the devaluation of silver in the United States.
Ollie is a bright kid, despite his lack of book learning. All he wants is for life to be easier for him, his brother and their mom. Mining’s the only thing he knows, so it’s natural he turns to that to make a difference. His relationships with Gus and Alys feel authentic. As do his frustrations and big ideas.
Author Avi (True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Gold Rush Girl) is no stranger to historical fiction, and The Road From Nowhere is better for it. Details of town and daily life are rooted in reality.
Avi captures a sense of adventure, even though the scope is narrow. That helps the narrative move forward at a good pace, even if it does feel a little short at the end.
The Road From Nowhere is a good option for fans of historical fiction.
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