Based on true stories of an immigrant family.
How can Pieter leave behind his dog and his best friend?
"I just saw her again," Pieter said to Elizabeth. "The girl from the ship and #151;she's hiding up on the roof." He had first noticed her the morning they left Troy on the canal boat bound for Buffalo. She had followed a large family of Netherlanders onto the boat, then turned away clutching a bulging green traveler's bag. Who was she and #151;and why did she seem to be hiding?
Pieter Dekker does not want to leave the Netherlands for America, but his father tells him the religious persecution is too great and #151;they want to worship God in their own way. So the family sets out for America.
On the Erie Canal, they buy passage on a canal boat, where Pieter and his sister Elizabeth discover Anna, a ten-year-old girl trying to get to Michigan by herself. Why is Anna alone? Can Pieter talk his family into helping her? And can Pieter forgive his father for bringing him to this strange and unfamiliar land where he has to work so hard?
In The Journey of Pieter and Anna, Pieter Dekker learns to trust God's direction in his life as he learns to be thankful for all that God has given him.
Helen Denboer is a teacher and librarian whose Dutch ancestors settled in Wisconsin, bringing with them a rich Christian heritage. She lives in Germantown, Maryland, where, like her ancestors, she attends a Christian Reformed church.