West Along the Wagon Road, 1852 (American Sisters) [Paperback]

Laurie Lawlor (Author)

Book Description

Series: American Sisters

Eleven-year-old Harriet "Duck" Scott, who isn't nearly as ladylike as her older sisters, finds many opportunities for adventure during an 1852 wagon train trip from Illinois to Oregon Territory, as her family deals with the loss of loved ones, quicksand, and a horse thief.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6-Lawlor's writing distinguishes this first offering in yet another new historical fiction series. Eleven-year-old Duck is one of the seven sisters and three brothers who make up the Scott family. The narrative begins following the death of their mother and covers their journey from Independence Rock into the Oregon Territory. Duck's older sister Maggie, once her close friend, is changing and she is often distracted by the young hired hand. More importantly than she herself may even realize, Duck needs to gain appreciation from her family, especially her father, who laments what a trial it is to have seven daughters. The Scotts experience their share of hardship during their trek, losing oxen and horses, eating flour soup because of dangerously low rations, and trying to nurture the two youngest children. Based on a real family's experiences, the story includes excerpts from diaries, letters, and The Prairie Traveler, a handbook from the period. These primary sources add authenticity to the text, but occasionally interrupt the flow. The story is a bit anticlimactic, ending after Duck finally proves herself worthy to her father, but prior to the family reaching their final destination. Still, Lawlor's well-researched text and readable writing style make this book an excellent choice for fans of the "Dear America" series (Scholastic) and historical diaries that are currently so popular.
Robin L. Gibson, Muskingum County Library System, Zanesville, OH
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter One

...The spring of 1852 ushered in so many preparations, great work of all kinds. I remember relations coming to help sew; tearful partings; little gifts of remembrance exchanged; the sale of the farm, the buying and breaking of unruly oxen; the loud voices of the men; and the general confusion. The first of April came. We were on our way to Oregon Territory. The long line of covered wagons, so clean and white...the loud callings and hilarity: many came to see us off. We took a last view of our dear Illinois homestead as it faded from sight....

An open country was now before us. The melting snows had made the streams high; the roads nearly impassable....When we reached Wyoming, this side of Fort Laramie, the passing of dear beloved Mother was a crushing blow to all our hopes. We had to journey on and leave her in a lonely grave -- a featherbed as a coffin and the grave protected from the wolves by stones heaped upon it. The rolling hills were ablaze with beautiful wild roses -- it was the twentieth of June, and we covered Mother's grave with the lovely roses, so the cruel stones were hid from view. We named the spot Castle Hill.

-- Duck

Duck ran as fast as she could toward the granite outcropping that looked like a great, gray giant slumbering in the middle of the open plain. She lifted the ragged edge of her long skirt and tucked it inside her belt so that she could leap over bunches of prickly pear. She darted around clumps of sage.

Faster! Faster! As she pumped her skinny legs and dug her heels into the dry, brittle ground, she forgot everything that had happened, everything she left behind. At that moment she was aware only of the rush and blur of her own movement. The sun beat down on the top of her head. Her brown hair blew ever which way in the hot wind. Sweat trickled down her forehead into her brown eyes. Her throat ached, but she did not pause to rest or catch her breath.

"Duck!" commanded nineteen-year-old Fanny. "Stop!"

"Wait for us!" pleaded Jenny, seventeen.

Fifteen-year-old Maggie, who straggled farthest behind, called, "I can't keep -- " The rest of her words were lost in the howling breeze.

Duck paid no attention to her three oldest sisters -- she kept running. She was eleven years old, the youngest of the four girls, and was determined to reach Independence Rock first. She'd climb to the top and use the jackknife she had borrowed to carve a message in big letters for all the world to see.

D. SCOTT FROM ILLINOIS -- JUNE 29,1852

Then wouldn't Father and her five sisters and three brothers be impressed?

At last she reached the rock's shadow. Its dark coolness swallowed her. Straight ahead, rising three hundred feet or more -- higher than the tallest church spire back home -- stood the rock. The rough surface of its enormous wall was scrawled with names and dates scratched and carved and painted in red and black letters. "Independence," "Wm. Sublette," "Moses Harris," "1841" and hundreds more messages from people she did not know -- all going west just as she and her family were.

Duck reached out. Closer, closer. There! She slapped her palm against the rock. The sting made her accomplishment feel real. She was first!

She turned and slumped against the rock. She gulped for air. Her knees shook, but she had made it. She smiled and watched her sisters struggling in the distance. How ridiculous they looked! They ran toward the rock in mincing, ladylike steps. Their skirts flapped about their ankles. Their sunbonnets heaved left and right on their heads like ships' sails on a stormy sea.

First came Jenny. She was the most determined of the three. Nicknamed String Bean by their brothers; Jenny was skinny with long legs. She had mischievous blue eyes and dull brown hair.

Next came Fanny. She was tall, just like Father, and had the same fierce, dark-eyed stare. Her brown hair was parted severely in the middle. Her small, pinched mouth rarely smiled at Duck.

Earlier that afternoon Fanny had clearly not been pleased when she noticed Duck trailing her and Jenny and Maggie as they left the wagon train and headed on foot for Independence Rock. "Nobody asked you to come along," Fanny grumbled. "Aren't you supposed to be helping herd cattle?"

"Father said, 'A few can go if you get back before we ford the river,'" Duck insisted. "He didn't say which few he meant."

"What harm is there in Duck joining us?" Maggie asked. "It isn't every day that you get a chance to visit something so famous and grand as Independence Rock."

Good old Maggie.

"All right," Fanny growled. "But try for once to stay out of trouble."

Now Duck watched Fanny stumbling through the sage and found the sight very satisfying. I stayed out of trouble and I beat you here. Duck cupped her hands around her mouth. "Slowpokes!" she hollered.

Fanny refused to look at Duck. Instead, she turned and shouted at Maggie, the very last. "Come on!"

Maggie did not reply. Her arms moved back and forth, as if she were trying her best to catch up. She was the frailest and the prettiest of Duck's three oldest sisters. She had the same brown hair as the others. What was different were her lovely smile and large blue eyes that often seemed very amused or very surprised.

As Maggie ran, something kept sticking to her skirt. Was it prickers? Every so often, she stopped, unhooked the material, and keep trotting. This time she wiped her face with her sleeve, sped a few more feet, stumbled forward, and vanished.

"Maggie!" Duck shouted. When her sister did not reappear and it seemed clear that neither Jenny nor Fanny was going back to help Maggie, Duck left the base of Independence Rock. She ran past her other two sisters to the spot where she had seen Maggie drop from sight. What if she was hurt? "Maggie," she called. "Where are you?"

No answer.

"Maggie!"

"I'm over here! " Maggie cried.

Duck followed the sound of her sister's voice beyond a fragrant clump of sundrenched sage. She looked down. There was Maggie, crumpled in a heap in a shallow hole, laughing. "What are you doing down there? " Duck demanded. "Is your leg broke?"

"I'm perfectly fine. Help me out," Maggie said. I didn't plan on paying any calls on prairie dogs today."

Duck giggled. She extended her hand to her sister and pulled with all her might. Maggie scrambled out of the hole and brushed dirt from her skirt. "That was very kind of you to rescue me. But do you know you look very unladylike?"

Duck looked down at her skirt, which was still tucked inside her belt so that her worn, patched breeches were plain as day. "Oh, well," she said and shrugged. "If Father would let me, I'd wear overalls like Sonny and Harvey. A dress makes no sense when you have to ride a horse all day."

"Don't be silly. Girls don't wear overalls." Maggie leaned over and adjusted Duck's skirt. She tied Duck's sunbonnet in a proper bow under her chin. "When are you going to start acting civilized?"

Duck sighed and didn't answer. She didn't enjoy it when Maggie pretended to be her mother. All fussy and bossy. She liked Maggie better when she was her friend, the person who listened to her secrets and dreams and jokes. The one who told her scary stories and helped her fly kites decorated with fierce dragon faces. "Come on," Duck said. She took Maggie's hand and began walking. "Uncle Levi let me borrow his knife. We can climb up and carve our names on Independence Rock. Someday someone will -- " She shielded her eyes and looked up at the very top of Independence Rock.

"What's the matter?" Maggie asked.

"Is that Jenny and Fanny up there?"

"Slowpokes!" two figures taunted. "We're first! We're first!"

Duck scowled. Fanny and Jenny were cheats. She had been first, not them, and they knew it. They --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 182 pages
• Publisher: Aladdin (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671015516
• ISBN-13: 978-0671015510
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,176,886 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fictionalized account of a real family that went west., August 4, 2000

By 

Rebecca Herman (USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: West Along the Wagon Road, 1852 (American Sisters) (Paperback)

Harriet Scott was a real girl who, in the spring of 1852, at the age of eleven, joined a wagon train for Oregon with her large family (consisting of Harriet, her parents, her five sisters, and her three brothers). More is known about Harriet and her family than most pioneers, because one of her sisters kept a journal that was later published, and Harriet herself wrote and published a memoir as well. Taking the facts and filling in with what was not known, the author has crafted a believable tale about the difficulties and tragedies this family encountered, which included the deaths of Harriet's mother and youngest brother. But what is certainly true for the survivors is that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Harriet is portrayed as a spirited, adventurous tomboy who develops a fierce loyalty to her family. She often resents her older sisters, who try to curb her spirit and keep her out of trouble. (Some things never change, no matter what century it is!) This book starts of a series that would be enjoyed by fans of the Dear America series.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cool book and author, October 20, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: West Along the Wagon Road, 1852 (American Sisters) (Paperback)

The author really made the characters of Duck and her sisters come alive and she described the journey really well. This book was both funny and sad. This is a really cool author & series!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great first book in the American Sisters series., August 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: West Along the Wagon Road, 1852 (American Sisters) (Paperback)

This first book in the American Sisters series was great. It was the story of Harriet "Duck" Scott, and the journey she, her five sisters, three brothers, parents, and nine hired hands made from Illinois to Oregon in 1852. Not far into the journey, however, Duck's mother dies, and the family must push on without her. But the journey isn't easy. Soon the Scotts are facing hunger, thirst, steep mountains trails, and other hardships. Will the Scotts make it to Oregon? Read this book to find out.