My Name Is Yip

My name is Yip Tolroy and I am a mute. I have made not a sound since the day of my birth, October 2nd, 1815. I have led a life filled with wonder and misery both. Fatherless and friendless, at fourteen years old Yip is no more than chest-high to anyone in his small town, a slate and chalk his only way of talking. Everyone stares, but nobody thinks he has anything to say. But then gold is discovered nearby, and Yip commits a grievous crime. In the company of a new and unlikely comrade, Dud Carter, he must leave town, on a journey that will introduce them to the wonder and horror of the American frontier, and learn to make his voice heard.