The Tin Heart
by Karen Ackerman
illustrated by Michael Hays
Atheneum 1990
Mahaley Hutchison lived on one side of the Ohio River, and her friend Flora Scotchman lived on the other. Flora's father had made them a tin heart, and each girl wore half as a symbol of their friendship.
Every day, Mahaley crossed the river on her father's ferry boat, Belle of the Piont, and played with Flora until it was time to load up the passengers and wagons for the return trip. But when a war begins between the southern and northern states, Mahaley's father and Flora's father find themselves on opposite sides. The ferry stops running, and the girls are separated.
Yet the girls believe they will they will be together again, and their hope illuminates this satisfying story of how lives and friendships were torn apart in the Civil War.