Customer Reviews

Daily Life in a Covered Wagon

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Follow the Larkin family on their journey from Indiana to Oregon in 1853 in search of a more prosperous life. This book uses actual pictures of objects from the past, many drawings,and diary writings. Their journey took almost 5 months, the family had to travel over 2,000 miles.Some of the 24 chapters include The Wagon, Indian Country, Children's Activities, Crossing A River, Stopping At A fort, Sickness and Death. A greatly detailed book with an abundance of color pictures on every page. Fantastic!!

I bought this book for myself while researching our family history. It helped me fill-out the lives of our long-gone family members who travelled and lived in this way for months at a time while opening lands from Massassachusets to Virginia to North Carolina to Tennessee to Texas to California. It was a great help in turning out a history that was more than names, places and dates.

The "look inside" on this amazon page doesn't do this book justice. It's a wide and tall book - perfect to have lots of interesting information and good pictures on each page spread, which is usually about one topic. Some of the topics include a bio about members of a family (the only "fictional" part), a diagram of what the covered wagon was like (cool!), what went into the covered wagon, disease and death, entertainment, what children did, etc. The pictures (of real things) drew me in and made it really fun. I liked being able to "see" what it was like. It made me feel like I was there.

The book is wonderful. If you've ever wanted to know what it's like to travel by wagon or what the challenges are, this diary is the book to read. Nice coverage of all the specifics of wagon life, day to day grind, etc.
The illustrations are so well done that you can visualize everyday life, get a good idea for the feelings they must have had as they met up with different situations, and challenges along the way.
Good book. I'd recommend it to anyone who loves the western world, early settlement eras, and American history.

I enjoyed using this book with my elementary students. The language is is not too technical. It doesn't go into too much depth. The photographs are great. The book really gives a sense of traveling over the continent on a wagon.

The author states that in the 1840s, the size of the United States doubled. This is an exaggeration. The author states that Indians charged tolls for crossing bridges. HUH?? I have never heard a reference to this before, and I am a teacher. I Googled it and found nothing.