JERICHO'S JOURNEY

In 1852, Jericho Wetherby, 12, and his family set off for Texas—where Pa's long been hankering to settle. After Uncle Dan writes that he has land they can buy, they stay in Tennessee just long enough to help Grandma bring in the harvest. Then, trying to outrace winter, they keep up a brutal pace, with Jericho walking most of the way, through rain and mud, frost and snow. They cross rivers by ferry and terrifyingly teetery bridges and suffer fevers, toll collectors, and skinflint storekeepers; meanwhile, Jericho meets many different sorts of people, grows in courage and self-assurance, and learns to play a fiddle he finds along the trail. The book has the same strengths and weaknesses as Wisler's earlier novels (e.g., Piper's Ferry, 1990): the characters remain a bit sketchy, but this fast-paced, action-packed pioneer story has believable, well-researched episodes and, in Jericho, a likable narrator with a consistent voice. (Fiction. 9-12)