Customer Reviews

Westward To Home: Joshua's Oregon Trail Diary

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm in 3rd grade and I read Joshua's Oregon Trail Diary (book 1.) When I read it, I just fell in love with it! I suggest this book to anyone who likes adventure, excitement, and realistic historical fiction.

The book Joshua's Diary is about a boy and his family who are traveling on the Oregon Trail. I enjoyed this book because it has so many wonderful details that make you feel as if you were with them. This is a very good book, but has very sad and frightening parts.

This book was good enough for me to keep reading it in one day. It was full of excitement and I always wanted to know what was going to happen next. For example, was Joshua going to save his drowning sister? Would they make it to Oregon before all the people died of illness or falling into the raging river? I suggest that you read this book if you want to know about the Oregon Trail -- a trail that starts in Missouri and continues through tons of states to Oregon.

Westward to Home is a great book to read about. Joshua, the boy in the story, and his family are going to Oregon in a wagon train.
Joshua writes about everything that happens in his diary.
I liked the part where Joshua and his family were fording down a river. Then his little sister almost drowned, but Joshua saved her.
One day his Grandpa took Joshua hunting and he shot a male buffalo.
The leader of the wagon train was cousin Daniel, who had no toes on one foot because of a frost bite.

I learned some interesting facts. Life on the Oregon Trail was hard, because of the bad wheather, not enough food and people got sick.
The migration to Oregon was 159 years ago.
The Indians respected the military.
I also learned that the author of this book is Patricia Hermes.

I would recommend this book for three reasons.
First, it's an interesting story. Second, it's suspenseful to read.
Finally, it's good to know, how life was over 150 years ago. It makes me
appreciate how good life is today.
Westward to Home is a great book!

Jessica Stedman, 3rd. Grade, Glenmeade Elementary School, Chino Hills, CA.

This book is perfect for giving young elementary students (K-2nd?) an impression of life on the Oregon Trail. Told in the first-person (journal style), the reader can see things through Joshua's eyes.

Some non-standard English; some senseless death.

This book is part of the My America series aimed at young readers. Young readers, boys and girls, will find the book to be an easy read for the most part. It is told in the first person narrative of a young boy named Joshua. He writes about the long adventure of his family's migration from Missouri to Oregon which entailed wagons and months of traveling by oxen to their final destination.

Joshua is a likeable boy who writes about the tragedies that occur over their long travel. The Oregon Trail was not an easy migration. People died from illness, accidents, and from the travels. From his perspective, he tries to keep an open mind about the Native American population who were probably threatened by the whites' migration into the western territories.

I think the story could have been better with regards to Joshua's story-telling. I felt that he was holding back and you don't do that in an actual diary. Anway, the book is an okay read.

Waited a month for my order. Received no feedback when I tried to contact seller. Found the book anyway in the library. Too much about death (there was a death of a child, drownings, scalping, etc.). Would not recommend this book for my nine-year-old. There's already enough death, war and accidents in this world, they do not need to read about it in a school book.

As we were studying the Oregon Trail, we read this book "for fun". It gave greater meaning to the "facts" that we read in the history book. I think he actually learned, and more importantly remembered, more information from this story than the history book! It gave him a glimpse into the harsh reality of the journey, without being too overloading.

If you think you have it hard, wait until you read the book Westward to Home, Joshua's Oregon Trail Diary. Joshua has hard times all through the book. He tells you many things about his family, friends, and neighbors. This book gets sad in parts but gets better in other parts.
The book Westward to Home takes place in 1848. The people in the book are never really in one spot the whole time, but their journey should end up in Oregon. Will they make it?
I think people who like reading diaries would enjoy reading this book.

This is a story of a boy who is about to set out on the Oregon Trail. His grandpa gives him a journal to write about the journey westward, but instead his grandpa goes with him. It tells the story of a young boy traveling westward and the difficulties that take place. Many people die while they are on the Oregon Trail from illness and other things. It mostly takes place while they are on the Oregon Trail. I thought this was a pretty good story telling about the Oregon Trail.