I want to buy this book and need help!!!! I do not know the name or the author, but the book The Long Way Home by Margot Benary-Isbert is NOT it.

The story was written for teenagers. It was in my junior high or high school library and I read the book (many times, I enjoyed it very much) around the late 1960’s or early 1970’s.

It took place after WWII.

A young (10?,12?, 14?) boy’s father fought in the war as a member of the French (?) resistance or underground. The father was supposedly killed during the war and his son then placed in an orphanage, residential school, or something similar. The son wants to believe that his father somehow survived. On the basis of a partial name similar to his father’s, which is mentioned in a torn newspaper article about a former French (?) resistance fighter teaching or something for some California (?) university (?). The boy hoped/believed that somehow his father actually survived the war and was living in the United States.

An international adoption program placed French (?) war orphans with adoptive parents in the United States. The boy did all he could at the orphanage/school – good grades, great behavior, etc – to get himself into the adoption program. The boy wanted to search for his father and saw the adoption program as the means to get to the United States.

The young boy is placed with an American couple. The adoptive father (Cal???) was a WWII veteran whose capture by the enemy was prevented by some French (?) civilians. Cal (?) wanted to “give back” by adopting a French (?) child/war orphan. I think the adoptive mother’s name was Sally. The couple is wonderful to the boy and the boy quickly comes to love them both very much. However, the boy cannot drop the hope/belief that his biological father is alive and the boy is compelled to make it to the town/college mentioned in the torn newspaper article.

About a month or so after arriving in the United States and moving in with Cal and Sally (?), the boy runs away to the town/college mentioned in the article. The boy has adventures along the way. He somehow meets up and travels a while with a young want-to-be reporter who sees a prospective human-interest story and perhaps the opportunity for an entry level position as a reporter in the orphan’s quest.

The boy eventually arrives at the place mentioned in the article and learns that the man mentioned in the article is not his father. Sadly, the man confirms that the father was indeed killed during the war. Because of his involvement in the underground, the man had known the boy’s father and is able to tell the boy the circumstances of his father’s death.

The boy is desolate, alone, and afraid – believing he has no options and no one. His biological father is dead and he felt he could not return to Cal and Sally as he had rejected them by running away. The want-to-be reporter who was following the boy contacts his adoptive parents. He explains what happened, and tells them where they can find the boy. Cal travels to the boy and reassures him that they love him and want him. Cal brings the boy home.

I think the title had the words “Long Journey” or “Long Road” in it.