Wagon Train

Wright, Courtni Crump

ISBN 10: 0823411524 ISBN 13: 9780823411528

Publisher: Holiday House, 1995

Synopsis

A chronicle of a black family's journey from Virginia to California in 1865 in search of a new kind of freedom provides a multicultural perspective on the settling of the American West.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 2-4-Told in the voice of Ginny, a 9-or 10-year-old former slave on a Virginia cotton plantation, this chronicle of a family's westward migration at the end of the Civil War is in itself an interesting story. The pedestrian writing style and forced dialogue, however, render a laudable subject dull and flat. The hardships that befall the girl's family are predictable, and readers are aware from the beginning that this family will make it to California intact, no matter what obstacles beset them along the way. Attempts are made at individual characterization, especially with Ginny and her older brother Ben, but the people still seem lifeless and superficial. Griffith's bold and colorful illustrations try to breathe life into the story; his images of the Oregon Trail, the cactus and brush, and the beauty of a mountain sunset are well executed, as are the authentic details of the Conestoga wagons and the animals, both wild and domestic. Amelia Stewart Knight's The Way West (S.&S., 1993) and Joan Anderson's Joshua's Westward Journal (Morrow, 1987) lend an immediacy to the pioneer experience that is missing here. This book conveys a special theme, one that is valuable for students to learn concerning the black experience during the latter part of the 19th century; however, the unbroken expanse of the prairie landscape does not have to be reinforced by a flat text.
Martha Rosen, Edgewood School, Scarsdale, NY
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

Gr. 3^-5, younger for reading aloud. Wright details the experiences and hardships faced by Ginny, a young African American girl, and her family as they travel west from Virginia to California in 1865. Unwelcome on the big wagon trains departing from Independence, Missouri, Ginny's family must form its own group of newly freed friends and relatives. They endure snakebites, drought, broken wagon wheels, extreme temperatures, and treacherous mountains before finally reaching California. In keeping with the picture-book format, Wright includes no maps and mentions no famous landmarks, concentrating instead on a few episodes in the fictional journey. Griffith's watercolor illustrations vividly depict the panoramic western landscapes as well as close-up details of daily life. An excellent introduction to a rarely reported chapter of American history that can be given to fans of Barbara Brenner's Wagon Wheels (1978) or paired with Paul Erickson's Daily Life in a Covered Wagon (1994). Kay Weisman

About this edition

• Publisher: Holiday House
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0823411524
• ISBN 13: 9780823411528
• Binding: Library Binding
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Griffith Gershom