Luke and his family homestead in a soddy on the Iowa prairie, barely managing to make ends meet. After a terrible storm and a prairie fire destroy the family's crops, Luke jumps at the chance to accompany his uncle, a wealthy trader, on a trip to Boston. The journey is filled with danger and adventure as they travel by horseback, ferry, and stagecoach, listening to rumors and speculation of gold in California. Because Luke never returns to his family, this novel feels like two separate stories sharing the same characters. The chapters set in Iowa are the strongest, with the harsh realities of prairie life serving as the backdrop for some potentially interesting characters. The journey chapters are informative, but Uncle Eli functions mostly as a plot device for transporting Luke across the country. Although not a first choice as historical fiction, this may be useful for classes studying history through novels. To be illustrated by Bert Dodson.
Kay Weisman
About the Author
Bonnie Pryor thoroughly researched important periods of American history for each of her American Adventures. For
Luke on the High Seas, she delved into seafaring in the nineteenth century so that the details of Luke Reed's journey would be accurate. She lives in Gambier, Ohio.
In Her Own Words...
"I grew up in Spokane, Washington, the middle child in a family of three girls. Books were a part of my life from as far back as I can remember. I was often in trouble for reading at the wrong time. I would be caught reading under the dining room table when I was supposed to be dusting, or reading under the covers by flashlight late at night-even hiding a novel inside my textbooks at school.
"Not everyone thought I read too much. I remember a school librarian who saved all the new books for me to read first, and on several occasions she gave me presents of books. Perhaps she felt she should because I had read every single thing in her library!
"I was very shy, and, like Robert in The Plum Tree War, I spent a lot of my time hanging from my knees from a favorite plum tree, telling myself stories. Of course since I was raised in the West these stories were usually about wild horses and cowboys, and I was always the heroine who came to the rescue. The stories were long and involved, sometimes going on for days. I was always impatient to get to my tree each day so I could find out what was going to happen next, but I was too lazy to write the stories down.
"I think everyone expected me to become a writer, but it took me twenty years and a gentle nudge from my husband, Robert, to build up the courage to try. In the meantime I moved to Ohio, worked at a variety of jobs, and raised a family. I have four grown children, eight grandchildren, and two daughters still at home-Jenny and Chrissy. Many of my books are loosely based upon incidents in my children's lives, and they often appear as characters, in personality if not by name.
"My family recently moved to the country. When I'm not writing and visiting schools, we're busy building barns and fences and laying out flower beds. In addition, we all take part in caring for the four newcomers to our home: three horses and a bunny!"
