". . . On the verge of World War II, eleven-year-old Gusta is sent from New York City to Maine, where she discovers small-town prejudices--and a huge family secret. It's 1941, and . . . as the Second World War rages in Europe, eleven-year-old Gusta's life, like the world around her, is about to change. Her father, a foreign-born labor organizer, has had to flee the country, and Gusta has been sent to live in an orphanage run by her grandmother. . . lugging her one precious possession: a beloved old French horn, her sole memento of her father. But . . . how can a girl hang on to something so valuable and yet so useless when Gusta's mill-worker uncle needs surgery to fix his mangled hand, with no union to help him pay? Inspired by her mother's fanciful stories, Gusta secretly hopes to find the coin-like 'Wish' that her sea-captain grandfather supposedly left hidden somewhere. Meanwhile, even as Gusta gets to know the rambunctious orphans at the home, she feels like an outsider at her new school--and finds herself facing patriotism turned to prejudice . . . and a family secret likely to turn the small town upside"--Provided by publisher.
