The Devil's Paintbox - Softcover

McKernan, Victoria

3.76

533 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0440239621 ISBN 13: 9780440239628

Publisher: Laurel Leaf, 2010

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It is April 1865. Aiden and Maddy Lynch have barely survived a brutal winter alone on the remains of their family’s drought-ravaged Kansas farm when an unlikely savior appears one morning. Jefferson J. Jackson is looking for strong men to work in the Seattle lumber camps, not a half-starved teenager with a useless girl in tow, but somehow the pair convinces him to let them join his wagon train.

It is a chance at a new life for Aiden and Maddy, but one that is two thousand rough and perilous miles away. "It's said there’s a grave a mile on the Oregon Trail," Jackson tells them bluntly. And Aiden soon learns that the greatest dangers go beyond storms, stampedes, and rattlesnakes. When smallpox, "the devil’s paint," threatens an Indian community Aiden has befriended, his loyalties, wits, and courage are severely tested.

Adventure-filled and historically accurate, Victoria McKernan’s novel captures both the peril and stunning beauty of the frontier West in an epic American story at once sweeping and intimate, heartbreaking and hopeful.

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About the Author:

Victoria McKernan is the author of the acclaimed Shackleton's Stowaway, a historical novel for young adults about the eighteen-year-old stowaway on Ernest Shackleton's 1914 expedition to the South Pole. She has also written four novels for adults. She is currently at work on her next novel for young readers.

Victoria McKernan lives in Washington, D.C., with a dog, two cats, and one boa constrictor.

From School Library Journal:

Starred Review. Grade 6–9—Orphans Aiden and Maddy, 15 and 13, are starving on what's left of their parents' drought-devastated ranch in Kansas, 1866. When a gruff yet likable trail guide, Jefferson J. Jackson, shows up, Aiden indentures himself as a logger in exchange for their passage to a new life in the Pacific Northwest via wagon train. What ensues is a harrowing journey across the continent during which Aiden is not only physically challenged but also beset by personal tragedy and moral conflict involving a group of Nez Perce Indians. The plot ultimately revolves around his interaction with his Native friend, Tupic, and the tribe's quest to get the vaccine for the smallpox virus, or "the devil's paintbox." This carefully researched novel describes actual historical events, such as the Sand Creek massacre, and includes an author's note about the controversy over whether or not Native Americans were deliberately infected with the virus. References to abortion, alcohol, and drug use (such as opium and laudanum), and a brief encounter with a prostitute, make this a vivid yet still teen-friendly read depicting the harsh realities of frontier life. The interactions between Aiden and Tupic, though somewhat unlikely, are fascinating as are the descriptions of life in an early lumber camp. This action-packed novel has all the elements of a good Western, including lively fight scenes and a main character who becomes a rugged individualist, risking life and limb for a cause he believes in. Fans of wilderness survival stories or adventure sagas will appreciate it most.—Madeline J. Bryant, Los Angeles Public Library
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