In celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Oregon Trail, this volume contains excerpts from the diary of Amanda Stewart Knight, a pioneer woman who left her home in Iowa in 1853 to go west with her family.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Adapted from the 1853 journal of her family's trip from Iowa to Oregon, Knight's account makes an unusual text for a picture book. The weather, the number of wagons around them, and making camp or crossing rivers form the authentic but eventually monotonous concerns of the "overlanders." Touches of dry humor appear, and dramatic incidents occur, as when a child is left behind. But McCurdy ( The Beasts of Bethlehem ) creates most of the excitement with his colored scratchboard illustrations, which recall 19th-century woodcuts. Strongly rendered pioneer faces glow with optimism and steadfastness in warm domestic scenes of the family sleeping in their wagon, or in climactic moments like the floating of wagon-beds across a river. An introduction by the adapter orients the reader, but also puts a 20th-century spin on Knight's perceptions: to say that "Indians helped" is to ignore the Knights' understanding of most of the encounters. At journey's end, the family gets some land; the reader will keep memories of the art but may leave the problematic text by the side of the trail. Ages 7-10.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Gr. 2-5. McCurdy's attractive artwork, strong woodcuts tinted with watercolor washes, decorates nearly every page of this book, which shows a pioneer family's journey from Iowa to Oregon in 1853. The story is told in "adapted" excerpts from the journal of Amelia Stewart Knight, a wife and mother who looked after her brood of seven children, gave birth to her eighth on the trail, and still found time to write. Although the telling is matter-of-fact, the various discomforts and dangers of the trip become apparent as the tale unfolds: kids get the mumps, everyone gets cold and wet and muddy, oxen go lame, rivers must be crossed with or without bridges, daughter Lucy gets left behind at one point (she's later returned to her family), and son Chat falls out of the wagon and is nearly run over by a wheel. The colorful, rhythmic illustrations dramatize events along the trail. The introduction fills in some details of wagon-train travel, but it omits background information on the diary itself, such as where it was found and how freely it was adapted. Still, teachers seeking materials on the Oregon Trail will find this a lively, useful resource. Carolyn Phelan
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The Way West,
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This review is from: The Way West: Journal of a Pioneer Woman, (Hardcover)
I was disappointed to find that this book was oddly worded and illustrated more like a children's book, rather than a chronicle of pioneer days. The drawings were bizarre and cartoon-like, and the book was very thin, as well.
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