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SCOUT OF THE OREGON TRAIL

THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN FAMILY TRAVELING THE OREGON TRAIL IN 1852 AS TOLD BY SCOUT, THE FAMILY’S DOG

An educational adventure perfect for young chapter-book fans or a family read-along.

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In Crickmer’s middle-grade novel, a stray dog roaming the streets of 19th-century St. Louis finds a forever home.

Scout, along with several other pups, is captured and tied to a tree by a “smelly man.” The man is hoping to find buyers among the hundreds of emigrants waiting in St. Louis for spring to arrive before heading west. Having known only a life of scrounging for food and shelter, Scout is excited to be selected by the three Churchill family children—young teenager Josh, younger sister Sarah, and little Molly. “…I promised myself I would be the best dog any family could ever have,” the dog reflects. The dangerous journey from St. Louis to Oregon City covers almost 2,400 miles, the first 360 via a riverboat that brings the Churchills to Independence, Missouri. They move into a tent village for several weeks, preparing to join a wagon train. While there, a rowdy boy pushes Sarah into the mud. Scout reports what happened next: “I leaped into the air and landed squarely on the boy’s chest, knocking him flat onto his back in the middle of the street.” It is but the first of many times that Scout comes to the rescue, including plunging into a frigid river to pull Molly to the surface when she falls out of the wagon and standing up to a mama bear. Through Scout’s enthusiastic, and occasionally anxious, voice, the author leads young readers through over 2,000 adventurous miles along the Oregon Trail, conveyed through uniquely canine sensibilities and understanding. The narrative serves as a vivid history primer, providing a plethora of details about the hardships and perils of daily life on a wagon train, including the intriguing tidbit that much of the human travel was done on foot because the wagons were unbearably uncomfortable to sit in as they traversed the rugged trail. Scout’s love for and devotion to the Churchill family leaps from almost every page—he’s a dog every young reader will crave for their own. A cute surprise ending will leave readers smiling.

An educational adventure perfect for young chapter-book fans or a family read-along.

Pub Date: May 11, 2023

ISBN: 979-8988167303

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Self

Review Posted Online: Sept. 7, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023

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STEALING HOME

An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel.

Sandy and his family, Japanese Canadians, experience hatred and incarceration during World War II.

Sandy Saito loves baseball, and the Vancouver Asahi ballplayers are his heroes. But when they lose in the 1941 semifinals, Sandy’s dad calls it a bad omen. Sure enough, in December 1941, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor in the U.S. The Canadian government begins to ban Japanese people from certain areas, moving them to “dormitories” and setting a curfew. Sandy wants to spend time with his father, but as a doctor, his dad is busy, often sneaking out past curfew to work. One night Papa is taken to “where he [is] needed most,” and the family is forced into an internment camp. Life at the camp isn’t easy, and even with some of the Asahi players playing ball there, it just isn’t the same. Trying to understand and find joy again, Sandy struggles with his new reality and relationship with his father. Based on the true experiences of Japanese Canadians and the Vancouver Asahi team, this graphic novel is a glimpse of how their lives were affected by WWII. The end is a bit abrupt, but it’s still an inspiring and sweet look at how baseball helped them through hardship. The illustrations are all in a sepia tone, giving it an antique look and conveying the emotions and struggles. None of the illustrations of their experiences are overly graphic, making it a good introduction to this upsetting topic for middle-grade readers.

An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel. (afterword, further resources) (Graphic historical fiction. 9-12)

Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-5253-0334-0

Page Count: 112

Publisher: Kids Can

Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021

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NUMBER THE STARS

A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit...

The author of the Anastasia books as well as more serious fiction (Rabble Starkey, 1987) offers her first historical fiction—a story about the escape of the Jews from Denmark in 1943.

Five years younger than Lisa in Carol Matas' Lisa's War (1989), Annemarie Johansen has, at 10, known three years of Nazi occupation. Though ever cautious and fearful of the ubiquitous soldiers, she is largely unaware of the extent of the danger around her; the Resistance kept even its participants safer by telling them as little as possible, and Annemarie has never been told that her older sister Lise died in its service. When the Germans plan to round up the Jews, the Johansens take in Annemarie's friend, Ellen Rosen, and pretend she is their daughter; later, they travel to Uncle Hendrik's house on the coast, where the Rosens and other Jews are transported by fishing boat to Sweden. Apart from Lise's offstage death, there is little violence here; like Annemarie, the reader is protected from the full implications of events—but will be caught up in the suspense and menace of several encounters with soldiers and in Annemarie's courageous run as courier on the night of the escape. The book concludes with the Jews' return, after the war, to homes well kept for them by their neighbors.

A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit of riding alone in Copenhagen, but for their Jews. (Historical fiction. 9-12)

Pub Date: April 1, 1989

ISBN: 0547577095

Page Count: 156

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1989

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