Customer Reviews

The Journal of C. J. Jackson, a Dust Bowl Migrant, Oklahoma to California, 1935 (My Name Is America)

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I never knew I liked historical fiction until I started reading the "My name is America" series. This book does an excellent job of putting the reader into the life of a 13 year old boy who is trying to be a kid, but trying to help his parents with all their worries during the depression and a drought hitting his farming community.

Complete with a foldout map outlining the journey across the plains, this book does a good job of explaining what the historical, cultural, and political views of the time were and how they affect the lives of the migrant workers as they arrive in California.

The epilogue of the book shows historical photos and documents from the time giving the reader a real feel for the actual lives of those who lived through this desperate hour of American history.

"The Journal of C. J. Jackson, a Dust Bowl Migrant, Oklahoma to California, 1935" is such a great book, because I doubt many people know about the dust bowl in Oklahoma. I surely didn't, and I learned a great deal while reading this. I would have never thought that American's would discriminate American's, by calling Oklahoma residents "Okies." But, it's not much different today, if you stop and think about it. That just stuck out in my mind while reading it. The entrees were realistic (although it made me wonder, with C.J. being only 13-years-old, and with minimal schooling, how he could have written so well), and easy to read. You'll walk away with a greater sense of early American history. I recommend.

As a musician who tours at least 200 days out of every year and spends time in the studio when I'm not on the road, I find that if I don't keep a number of interesting books with me on the road, my brain completely turns to mush.

One of the books I read recently was The Happy Immortals, a great novel set partially in the Dust Bowl years.

I'd traveled through and flown over the Oklahoma Panhandle many times, but didn't know a lot about the area or what this land had gone through.

Anyway, the interest from that novel led to a search for more fiction and historical books about the Dust Bowl, including this one.

It's unforgettable. You can't read this book without understanding better what the Okies of the "dirty thirties" went through.

Kudos to William Durbin for a job well done!

BTW, two more excellent historical books on the Dust Bowl and the Oklahoma Panhandle are Letters from the Dust Bowl, The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl, and Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s. All are definitely worth the time.

Rock on!

This is a good book. It's about this boy named C.J Jackson who lives in Oklahoma during the dust bowl in 1935. He moves to California with his family where he experiences hardships and prejudice. This book is a good history book, that teaches about this era.

Thirteen-year-old C.J. Jackson lives in the Oklahoma Panhandle where the Dust Bowl has affected everyone's lives. Years with drought have caused crops to fail and C.J.'s family can hardly keep up. Many of their close friends have already moved on west, to places where they hope there is better opportunites. For C.J.'s family the dust storms that come almost every other day makes things even worse. When C.J.'s Grandpa dies of dust pneumonia the family finally has to leave their farm and move to the San Joaquin Valley in California. As the C.J., his parents, two sister, Olive and Belle, and two brothers, Lester and Dalton travel on Route 66 they face many troubles but are finally rewarded when they reach the rich fields of California. Little do they know the hardships ahead as they find themselves working as migrant workers and scraping for every penny they can get. Will C.J.'s family survive their new environment?

This book captures the spirit of the plains and the perilous journey that confronted Dust Bowl migrants who headed for California. Route 66 comes to life. The characters are real, and the voice of the narrator is convincing.

I was profoundly disappointed by this book. The title says "Journal", and the book's cover shows a photograph that might lead the reader to assume that it is an image of the author. But it is not until the very last page of the book (except for the map) that the author, whose name is absent on the front cover, back cover, or printed edge, admits that this work is fiction. Look also at the editorial review, where it claims "C. J. is an authentic and likable protagonist." Then look at MAB's review. He/she may be under the impression that a 13 year-old wrote this book. The next two reviewers also claim it to be a "Nice historical..", and a "A vivid picture of the time". Not so, as it was written in 2002, a fact not appearing until the last page. I have never encountered a book in which the copyright and printing information are placed on the last page. I wonder why.

With respect to the historical part of this historical fiction, there are numerous errors. June 1 in Wildorado TX, June 2 Romero NM. Romero (or Romeroville) is in east NM, yet Durbin has C.J. traveling that day "through some pretty mesa country south of Chaco Canyon". Not possible, since Chaco Canyon is west of Albuquerque, which is not reached in the book until June 4. The map is a disaster: Shamrock is in TX, not OK; Flagstaff is mis-identified as Hollbrook (sic). Even Durbin's "Historical Note" is suspect. His CA photograph on page 164 is clearly a fabrication.

The author (Durbin, not Jackson) should have done a better job in identifying the work as fiction, and certainly could have created a more convincing story by carefully researching the facts.