Rose's Journal: The Story of a Girl in the Great Depression [Hardcover]

Marissa Moss (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up | Series: Young American Voices

The Samuels family is made of tough stuff. That’s a good thing, because it’s another trying year in the Dust Bowl. Weeks pass without rain, and it seems that all the plow stirs up is dust. But fortified with hope, love, determination, and ingenuity, eleven-year-old Rose and her family weather the toughest of times. And although Rose’s older brother, Floyd, prefers drawing to farming, he comes through when he is needed most, in his own special way.
Carefully and poignantly rendered, Rose’s story will linger in the hearts and minds of young readers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The latest installment of the Young American Voices series, Rose's Journal: The Story of a Girl in the Great Depression, by Marissa Moss, covers the "Dirty Thirties." Set on a Kansas farm, Rose's pink-lined pages contrast with her handwritten account of dust storms and drought so severe that birds, lacking their usual materials, made nests of barbed wire. Captioned sketches and historical b&w photographs lend authenticity to this well-researched account. (Harcourt/Silver Whistle, $15 48p ages 8-12 ISBN 0-15-202423-9; Oct.)

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Gr 3-5-In her first journal entry, Rose Samuels writes "good riddance" to 1934, and "I sure hope 1935 is a heap better." Unfortunately, it isn't. From month to month, she chronicles events on the family farm in Kansas as well as what is happening across the nation. The Bruno Hauptmann trial is in session, and Amelia Earhart has made her solo flight from Hawaii to California. Jack Benny and George Burns are favorites on the radio, but the Depression is so bad that hot cocoa and custard are foods Rose can only dream of enjoying. On the farm, nothing grows, and the cattle are so skinny that they have "washboard ribs." And there is always the dust. The Samuels come to the brink of losing their land, but at the last minute, they are saved from foreclosure. Moss has done a fine job in research, and there is quite a bit of historical information packed into this short book. However, some of the characters are undeveloped. The text is hand lettered and illustrated with colorful paintings and black-and-white archival photographs. For a child's-eye view of events in U.S. history, including the Depression, try Phillip Hoose's nonfiction title, We Were There, Too (Farrar, 2001). Jerry Stanley's Children of the Dust Bowl (Crown, 1992) is still one of the best titles chronicling the devastation brought by the dust storms and drought.

Roxanne Burg, Thousand Oaks Library, CA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 56 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152024239
• ISBN-13: 978-0152024239
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,287,156 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Marissa Moss has been telling stories and drawing pictures to go with them for as long as she can remember. She sent her first book to publishers when she was nine, but it wasn't very good and it never got published. She didn't try again until she was a grown-up, but since then she hasn't stopped.

The idea for the first Amelia's Notebook came from the notebook Moss kept when she was a kid. Amelia is a lot like her and the things that happen to Amelia really happened to Marissa (mostly).

Along with Amelia, Moss has created many characters and is especially drawn to history. Historical books allows her to imagine what it's like to be alive in a different place at a completely different time. And then there are the Max Disaster books which allow her to play with scientific experiments, inventions, and comic strips.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary Book, Recommend for Curriculum, February 7, 2006

By 

Joan Lester "Author" (Berkeley, CA. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rose's Journal: The Story of a Girl in the Great Depression (Hardcover)

Marissa Moss's Dustbowl story is one of the most compelling books I've ever read on the topic. I'm a literate adult, but was shocked at how much I DIDN"T know before I read this book. She packs Depression-era "facts" into a heartbreaking (and ultimately heartwarming) tale of a girl and her family, all rendered especially poignant with charming drawings that accompany the text. The whirling storms of dirt that cover everything with mounds of dirt ("we could tell where it came from by the color: gray dirt from Oklahoma; red dirt from Texas; brown was our own Kansas dirt") are brought to life with the evocative drawings, as well as the well-rounded characters. This book should be read by every child--and adult--in the country, as an essential part of U.S. history. I loved the book, was moved by it, and was sorry when it ended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars girl in a storm, March 23, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Rose's Journal: The Story of a Girl in the Great Depression (Paperback)

This book is about a girl who lives in a house and they live by a farm and all they have are horses and cows and chickens. She is in a big dust storm. They cannot keep anything growing so her mom and dad go out to a dancing contest to see if they can earn money for seeds. They come back without any money. So they join a last man standing club. This club is for people who are having hard times but will not abandon their town. I liked this book because it was based on a true story, and it was from a long time ago. The setting was set in the desert with lots of wind storms and also set during the Great Depression.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The girl that learns agin, March 23, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Rose's Journal: The Story of a Girl in the Great Depression (Paperback)

This book was alsome. It puts me in her place. I can get in to alot of books but this is the book that it gust took a little bit to read it. It might be little but it is good. We could have done alot of other books but i picked this one. I'm all so reading two other books. It is about a girl in the gret depresion she has to clean ever day. She lifes with her mom,dad,and her brother. She and her panters and her friends have to live in the sand storms. My reflection is i would recmond this book to other people that have to do something on the great deppresson. OR if you just want to read it for fun. The story elements are where the story takes place in the dester. the point of fewe is that the worst can happen.