Sixteen-year-old Bill finds adventure when he becomes a rider for the Pony Express (though his letters home never hint at the dangers he encounters)

"Bestselling author Stephanie Grace Whitson's latest historical novel features an adventurous young heroine who joins the Pony Express. Orphaned Annie Paxton and her brothers may have lost the only home they've ever known, but they're determined to make a better future in St. Joseph, Missouri. Annie dreams of a pretty house with window boxes, and having friends, and attending church every week. But then her brothers spot the ad for a new venture called...

Relates the history of the Pony Express from when it began to carry messages across the American West in April 1860 until the telegraph replaced it in October 1861.

Describes the disadvantages to being a Pony Express rider, including riding in all weather, natural disasters, and disease.

In 1860, eleven-year-old Annie, who lives at the Red Buttes Pony Express station in the Nebraska Territory, asks Pony Express rider Billy Cody to help her find the person responsible for sabotaging her favorite pony Magpie.

Recounts Will Cody's, later known as Buffalo Bill, legendary Pony Express ride where he covers 322 miles, using twenty-one horses, and taking over twenty-one hours to complete.