All the Way Home (novel)

"All the Way Home" is an October 2001 novel by Patricia Reilly Giff. It takes place during the late 1940s, the year the Brooklyn Dodgers won the pennant, and relates it to another success against all odds story. It covers the intertwined story of Mariel and Brick.

Plot summary

Brick belongs to an apple farm in upstate New York. When it burns down from lightning, his parents move to very separated places to support the family. However, Brick has to live with his mom’s friend’s adopted, polio-stricken child, Mariel. They are some of the lone Dodger fans in the city, but Brick has the winter’s effect on the apple harvest, and Mariel feels that Brick is ignoring her because he doesn’t like her. However, soon Brick tells what’s on his mind to Mariel. He sets off for his home 200 miles away by foot to save the apple harvest. Mariel soon remembers a flashback that her real parents lived in the same town as Brick. She sets off, catches him, and Mariel spends her beloved two-dollar bill to buy bus tickets for both of them. When they arrive at Brick’s apple farm, they realize that the there will be many perils in saving the apple farm. He got injured on the job and Brick feels it’s impossible to save the apples. However, Mariel discovers her own history and invites her mom’s old friends to help. They get the things they want most in life on the same day the Dodgers win a pennant, on a day where all dreams seem to come true.