Customer Reviews

Off Like the Wind!: The First Ride of the Pony Express

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While most young readers will respond to stories of the early American West, there is little more exciting or educational than a factual account of those days. OFF LIKE THE WIND, The First Ride of the Pony Express is a prime example of a true account that holds more thrills than any fictional cowboy tale could possibly offer.

Illustrated by Layne Johnson's oil paintings this is a book that young ones will want in their libraries and perhaps some day pass on to children of their own. The account of the first Pony Express ride is a story filled with courage, endurance, excitement, and perseverance.

Three businessmen who made their lives carrying wagon loads of goods across the West came up with the idea of building a series of stations across our country from the east to California and the western territories so that a rider might carry mail along this route. With stations every 15 miles or so the rider would be able to change horses at every station.

Obviously, it would take plucky young men to be riders and one was certainly found in Johnny Fry, the first man to take this history making ride. Some 100 stations were placed along the nearly 2,000 mile trail. He carried mail "in small locked pouches called micelles."

Spradlin chronicles the 11 day journey from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California. Each day is accompanied by a description of the land being crossed and the hazards faced plus a stunning full page painting. A map of the Pony Express route, which actually covered a total of 1,840 miles is found on the endpapers.

Highly recommended.

- Gail Cooke

There was danger to be found along the lengthy route, but there was also money to be made. At "five dollars per half ounce," many people were willing to pay the price because some had not heard from their families for months and in some instances for years. In frontier days, most letters had been traveling by ship to California, but the journey was sometimes treacherous and took months. William H. Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell put their entrepreneurial heads together and came up with a possible solution. They believed that the mail could be delivered quickly by carefully charting a route to the West, purchasing ponies and enlisting riders. After snagging a government contract and they would be in business.

This venture soon became known as the Pony Express. The riders were pumped, the mail was ready, the stations were set up and they were ready to go. The first day began in St. Joseph Missouri on April 3, 1860. Johnny Fry was the first man in history to mount a pony with his mail pouch, a pouch that eventually would make its way to Sacramento, California on the back of a pony. These "small locked pouches called `mochilas'" would see a lot of excitement along their eleven-day journey. There were storms, "nervous buffalo" herds to avoid, marauding Indians, wolf packs, skittish ponies, and difficult terrain to travel. In this book you will read about these brave riders and their exciting historical journey to deliver the mail in record time.

This was a mesmerizing and exciting look at the first Pony Express riders and their historical first journey. If the reader looks carefully at the fantastic artwork when reading the story, he or she can almost feel the excitement of the trip. I loved the "cowboy" art because it captures a slice of Americana and the old West perfectly. The end pages have a timeline, an illustrated map of the route and one of a mochila. The author's note sheds more light on the history of the Pony express, a note that could provide a stepping stone to a student's report. There are also additional recommended book and website resources for the young reader to consider. This book provides a nice historical slice of the old West you might want to take a look at!

I bought Off Like the Wind for my grandsons for next Christmas. It is a wonderful book, the story very well written for 7-10 year olds, and the art work is beautiful! I love stories of the old west myself and thought this was an exceptional book. One that I would love to have in my personal collection.