Customer Reviews

West to the Sun

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a wonderful historical story for all ages! Jeremiah is 11 years old and him and his family are packing their belongings and heading west to Oregon. No, they're not packing their luggage and loading it in their car, this is a story set in the 1800's during the pioneer days. They are traveling in their covered wagons! Jeremiah tells about his families hard times and good times traveling through prairies, down mountains, across rivers, in their covered wagons. Highly recommend!

The Oregon trail was a brutal road, but the promise of a better life pushed people through it. "West to the Sun" tells the story of one family journeying westward and the adventure they face. Told through the eyes of young eleven year old Jeremiah, this adventure rings out strong and shows a vivid picture of this time and the people who took this risk. "West to the Sun" is a choice read, well worth considering for juvenile fiction collections.

Told from the perspective of young Jeremiah Symons, West to the Sun, is a fascinating look at the western migration. His family's trip isn't without tragedy and trial but Jeremiah learns about faith and family and hard work. Jeremiah is a great kid and I think a lot of boys would relate to his voice. There are some laugh-out-loud funny parts as he deals with some of the other, more obnoxious boys also on the wagon train.

The Symon's family's faith is an integral part of their lives and so the novel is Christian in nature. While Jeremiah often sounds older than his 11 years and the narration is somewhat formal in dialogue, the story flows well, with a terrific historical aspect and research. I anxiously awaited and recognized their their arrival in Idaho.

As the Symon's wagon train comes upon a Mormon wagon train, I appreciated Jedidiah's explanation to his son that while he disagreed with the Mormon faith, he didn't approve of the persecutions they received.

While geared to pre-teen boys, girls and adults will enjoy this novel. It's easy to read and fascinating from a historical perspective. With vivid descriptions, this is a well researched story and would be a great book to read aloud with your children.

In West to the Sun, author Tom G. Good weaves a story of the Oregon Trail, and the pioneer experience of Jeremiah Symons, an 11-year-old boy and his family. Good skillfully narrates the world and history surrounding the characters in a way that captures the readers imagination and carries the journey into visions and vistas outside of the modern experience. In his writing, the author successfully relates the hazards and dangers faced by our pioneer forefathers, exploring concerns, customs, needs, and desires that lay buried in our nation's past and yet which have so deeply influenced the modern psyche. Good unearths and presents with wonder, surprise and no little amount of awe a fictional and yet historically accurate telling of the journey west for the enrichment of future generations.

Having myself experienced, at the age of nine, being uprooted from my home in modern day America and moved to the wilderness of Northern Canada, I could relate to the daily urgencies, the depiction of life hardships and ever present dangers related by the author. The story teller does not however, focus on the burning resentments, deep fears and the kinds of spiritual challenges an experience like this engenders in a child or the family dynamic. The main characters remain constant and unchallenged in their love for each other, their faith and in their sense of self. The voice of the narrative is more the voice of a wise father than a youth and so on occasion comes across as being a little too good, but the writing is skillful and the history sound. The real story in West to the Sun is that of the Oregon Trail itself, with the characters of Jeremiah and his family being a lens to look through and means of delivery.

This book is an excellent teaching tool for parents and teachers wanting to share with children the history and experiences lived by the courageous men and women of frontier America. With excellent written delivery of the preparation for the journey itself, accurate skillful portrayal of the social interactions between travelers and wagon train life, the difficulties faced and chance encounters along the way, this book offers valuable perspective and insight. Few children today have a comparative experience through which they can empathize or intuit understanding for the hardships experienced, wonders beheld and the demands such a journey would make on early pioneers. Thankfully, we have Tom G. Good's skillful pen and talented imagination to breathe life into the telling.

West to the Sun

A Writers in the Sky review by Vonnie Faroqui [...].

West to the Sun vividly carries the reader along the Oregon Trail with the Symons family, experiencing hardship, heartbreak, and triumph as they move across country on the Oregon Trail. Kids looking for a historical adventure will enjoy reading West to the Sun. Students seeking to understand life on the Oregon Trail will find their curiosity peaked and satisfied. Teachers looking for a way to interest students in this period of American history will find a valuable resource in this historical fiction book.

It is a good omen for the cover of a book intended to tell the story of the great emigrant trails across the far western frontier, to feature an illustration of a covered wagon pulled by the appropriate numbers of the appropriate draft animal. The cover art for all too many novels of this sort feature a huge wagon hitched to two horses, an arrangement as impossible in practice as it was historically inaccurate. It was a brutally wearing journey, where there was often not much of a road at all, and horses were too fragile and expensive to serve as team animals. Having written my own novel, To Truckee's Trail about a wagon-train party, venturing to California in the early years, I can attest that having an accurate cover is a promising start for young readers hoping to learn about the emigrant experience.

This youth-oriented historical follows the Symons family - father Jedediah, mother Mary, eleven-year old Jeremiah, little sister Bitsy and an assortment of old friends and new-made acquaintances, as they leave their farm in Tennessee and take to the trail for Oregon. They do so with the advice of Jedediah's brother Peter, a knowledgeable veteran of the far west, in the days when everything west of the Mississippi-Missouri was a trackless wilderness. The character of Uncle Peter affords a graceful means of acquainting young Jeremiah and his family with old mountain men such as Jim Bridger, and of relaying bits of western lore, and practical wisdom of the trail. The family is also religiously devout, in a way that is true to the historical record, although displaying a more 20th century degree of tolerance towards other faiths.

In a fairly straight-forward way, this account fills in many little details of the wagon-train pioneer's journey: the politicking which went on, all along the trail as bands of travelers elected leaders, found fault with them and elected new leaders, dealt with lawbreakers, split apart into more congenial group and negotiated a safe passage for their families and wagons with potentially hostile Indians. It is also a full and heartbreaking account of fatalities from accident and disease encountered by the Symons party. It was a rare wagon party which did not leave a member, or sometimes several members of it behind, in a lonely and unmarked grave along the Platte or the Sweetwater.

I would criticize this book on only one account, which would be that the narrative voice sounds a little too modern, occasionally dropping into 20th century turns of speech which struck me as more than a little jarring. This would have been a quite satisfactory read if Jeremiah had sounded a little more like a 19th century `voice'; if his narration sounded more like Tom Sawyer's or Huck Finn's - or even Jaimie, in The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (Arbor House Library of Contemporary Americana).

"West to the Sun" is historical fiction about an 11-year-old boy and his family traveling by wagon train along the Oregon Trail around 1849. Though not heavy-handed with the historical details, this is the sort of book you read because you like (or want to learn more about) this part of history.

Clearly the author carefully researched the physical terrain, the struggles, and the history of the trail. However, I did question a few of the minor details he gave about the animals, food storage, etc. But they weren't details that were critical to the story.

The tone of the novel was formal--partly because the author didn't use contractions (that I spotted). Even the obstacles and struggles were described so briefly and in such a matter-of-fact tone that there was rarely much chance to feel suspense and I, as a reader, usually felt held at a distance.

The characters were interesting and I wanted them to succeed, but they weren't very complex and only Jeremiah changed much. The main characters were Christian. They did fairly frequently refer to God (as in, "God's amazing handwork" when referring to nature). There wasn't any preaching to the reader.

I don't recall any bad language, and there was no sex. I suspect that the novel would appeal most to tweens or teens (especially boys). Overall, I enjoyed this novel and would recommend it as good, clean reading to those wanting to learn more about the Oregon Trail.

I received this book as a free review copy from the author.

Reviewed by Debbie from Genre Reviews

(genrereviews. blogspot. com)

During the westward expansion of the United States, thousands of people made the long trek from some starting point on the Mississippi river to the Oregon territory. It was a difficult journey and their comrades buried thousands and then passed by their graves. This book is the fictional story of the Symons family as the father Jedediah decides to sell their farm in Tennessee and move to Oregon. Narrated by his 11-year-old son Jeremiah, most of their adventures were experienced by all who made a similar trek.

It was all based on the strength of their oxen, stolid creatures almost as strong as the will of the Symons clan and the other families in their wagon train. This was the spirit of adventure that forged the United States, a willingness to cease a safe and relatively comfortable existence for the opportunity to experience the journey and grow their crops on a larger farm. While a lot of it was the drudgery of walking through the same environment day after bone wearying day, there were times of great excitement and wonder at the splendor of nature.

Over the course of the journey, Jeremiah grows into a man, capable of doing what men had to do on the frontier and the reader is treated to a tale that is fiction, yet historically accurate.

This was a great adventure across the country. Have you ever wondered if you could survive the experiences? T. G. Good draws you in with his narrator, 11 year old Jedidiah, and helps you adventure with the Symons family. You experience the joy of natural landmarks, many still standing today, experience sights not seen today, herds of buffalo, and share joys and sorrows with fellow travellers on the trail. Young and old will enjoy this adventure across our great land!