Customer Reviews

Going West (Picture Puffin Books)

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

 

 

I use this book (with many others) as part of my Westward Expansion/Pioneers unit for 3rd graders. It touches nicely on the subject and provides for opportunity to expand (in more detail of course) on the various encounters and experiences by the family along the way while "going west". My students enjoy it and always comment positively on it, both text and illustration.

I was disappointed in this book. The artwork made it seem like it would be something new and different (from the cover page: "The full-color artwork was prepared with charcoal, pastel, and colored pencils. It was then scanner-separated and reproduced in red, blue, yellow, and black halftones.") -- but the story itself is like a pale shadow of Little House on the Prairie. How they packed, camped, slept outside, forded a river... the part where Pa drove away every day down to the river and cut down trees to bring back and use for the logs to build their new home... it's all exactly the same. Winter came and the snow was so deep that Pa tied a rope between the house and barn and held onto it to go back and forth and do his chores... and so on and so forth. I disagree with the review below that the author didn't do any homework; but it looks to me like he/she only read ONE book -- and I'd rather read the original! Skip this book and get the real thing. Laura Ingalls Wilder did a better job.

The story is nicely told and the illustrations are beautifully done, but there are details that concern me from a historical point-of-view. Where do they find logs big enough for the walls of a cabin on the prairie? Instead the author should have had them build a sod house. Also, there would not be room to ride in the wagon or to sleep in it. It would be too crammed with goods and food. Usually the children, except for very little ones, walked. The family slept outside. These were very narrow and cramped wagons.