Title: Jesse Sings
Description: More than anything, eight-year-old Jesse Hall wants his divorced parents to reconcile. He has witnessed the pain his dad inflicts when he is drunk, but Jesse knows it’s the alcohol, not his dad. “If I write him, I might make him stop drinking and gambling, then we can all be together.”

Despite Jesse’s fervent prayers, his dad misses child support payments, keeps gambling, and remains an alcoholic. To make ends meet Jesse delivers papers, collects deposit money on pop bottles, and inspects change slots of vending machines while his mom sews and cleans for people in the small rural town.

However, there are people in the town who have other plans for him: a pair of school bullies and a local preacher who tries to move Jesse to foster care by reporting his mom as unfit to a well-meaning social worker. It’s the 1950’s.

How can Jesse and his penniless mother keep their family from being torn further apart? How do they survive their poverty? Will the town turn on them or save them? Read how Jesse’s girlfriend, the deputy Sheriff, a five-and-dime clerk, and a mummified corpse help Jesse face his dilemma.

Jesse Sings is the first book of the three-book series, Searching for Family, a coming-of-age novel about a son trying to rescue his alcoholic father.

If you like books like Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, you will love this Best Book Award 2018 Finalist by Victor Hess.