The Button Boy

In the sweeping conclusion of The Button Boy Trilogy, we are reminded of how, during the Great Depression, a runaway boy named Josiah Howard was given a home by the kindhearted Schmidt couple. Josiah was taught the old-world trade of clay button making that had been in the Schmidt family for generations in Germany and America.

As the boy grew, he...

It is 1879 Germany, and 19-year-old Johannes Schmidt is a button maker in the small town of Bollen, Germany. It’s hard work, but three generations of Schmidt men have supported their families making buttons. Suddenly, between losing his father and the Long Depression in Germany, Johannes is faced with hard decisions about his button making in...

Josiah Howard lost his parents to the Spanish flu and became an orphan at age five. After five turbulent years in foster care, the desperate ten-year-old Josiah ran away. During the Great Depression, he finds himself alone on the streets begging for food. So desperately hungry that first week, he takes off again, this time to the woods to...