Product Description

"I was on my claim,
I told myself over and over...
Nothing bad could happen to me here."

With a mind of her own and a handsome suitor who loves her for it, seventeen-year-old Jane Peck is the darling of the Washington Territory. She's outwitted wild animals, vengeful ghosts, and a disloyal fiancé, but when her finishing school nemesis Sally Biddle invades Shoalwater Bay, Jane discovers that the most dangerous thing on the frontier may be an impeccably dressed debutante. As the Biddles of Philadelphia charm their way into Jane's close-knit community, she finds everything she holds dear threatened -- including her true love, a rakish sailor named Jehu. Will Jane's claim on happiness slip away?

This third book of the richly historical Boston Jane trilogy carries on the tradition of rip-roaring romance and adventure that began with Boston Jane: An Adventure and Boston Jane: Wilderness Days. Jane has survived the wilderness and claimed herself a home, but her frontier trials are far from over. It will take all of the spunk and spit Jane can muster to protect her land and preserve her dreams.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #132990 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03
• Released on: 2004-03-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 6 Up-Fans of this series, set in Shoalwater Bay in Washington Territory in the 1850s, will find Jane, now 17, to be just as strong and admirable a character as ever. In this third installment, the frontier settlement has grown into a town and Jane works as a concierge in the hotel. Her old rival, Sally Biddle, disembarks ship and immediately takes every opportunity to embarrass and alienate Jane just as she had done back in Philadelphia. William Baldt, the man who asked Jane to marry him in the first book, is back and threatens to take her land. She surprises some community members when she speaks up for a wrongly accused Chinook who is charged with stealing whiskey, and she bravely rescues a child of Chinook and white heritage who is unfairly placed with an abusive foster parent. A touch of romance between Jane and Jehu, the sailor she met on her journey west, helps move the story to a satisfying conclusion. This glimpse into Northwestern pioneer life is based on primary and secondary sources, including Holm's own family history. Recommend this title to readers who enjoyed L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables and Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House on the Prairie" series (HarperCollins).
Jean Gaffney, Dayton and Montgomery County Public Library, Miamisburg, OH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Gr. 5-8. Holm continues Jane's adventure-romance, which began in Boston Jane: An Adventure (2001) and continued in Boston Jane: Wilderness Days (2002). In this story Jane's nemesis from her Philadelphia days, Sally Biddle, has arrived in Shoalwater Bay. Sally is up to her usual schemes, trying to isolate Jane from her new female friends and causing trouble between Jane and Jehu, the man Jane loves. Complicating matters, Jane's former fiance William has also returned--to help the governor relocate the Chinook population and to have Jane's homestead claim declared invalid. As always, Holm's characters are skillfully drawn. Readers will identify with the painful results of Sally's dirty tricks and cheer Jane on as she finds the backbone to put Sally in her place. A subplot involving a young girl taken away from her Chinook mother after the death of her white father is also well handled. The author's attention to historical accuracy (some of it involving her own family) is strong, as always, but memorable characters and all-too-believable situations are the real hallmarks of this very satisfying read. Kay Weisman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Jennifer L. Holm is the author of the Newbery Honor Book Our Only May Amelia and of the historical novels Boston Jane: An Adventure and Boston Jane: Wilderness Days. The Creek is her first contemporary novel. She creates her unforgettable heroines in New York, where she shares a home with her husband and her cat.

Customer Reviews

A pleasing installment.
"Boston Jane: The Claim" is the third "Boston Jane" book in this series, and while it's not as adventurous as the other two, "Boston Jane: An Adventure" and "Boston Jane: Wilderness Days," it gives off a familiarity, with new problems. Even though Jane can handle grizzly bears and men, she shows weakness to her female peer that is definitely realistic. I was disappointed in her friends for befriending Sally so quickly, and discarding Jane hastily, but the ending is satisfactory. Hopefully, we won't have to wait two-years for a fourth installment, like we had to before. I good read - I recommend.

Pretty good...
Okay, the third book wasn't as exciting as the second or the first. But I thought the first was the best of the Boston Jane trilogy. The first was more original, spunky, funny, entertaining, fresh, and totally unpredictable. The others are kind of like add-ons; they didn't have much of a polt to the story. But I enjoyed reading the book and all the rest as well. All in all, the book was thrilling, romantic, and fun to read over and over again and had a sweet ending.

dissapointed:(
This book wasn't even half as good as the first two! In fact it was quite annoying! Im sally shows up again? And williams back? I thought it was a bit sad that holm had too bring back old villians instead of makeing up someone new and interesting. And Janes "friends" are quite a dissapointment as wel. None of them stick up for her and jehu is a horrible rotter in this book! He barely comes in except to disbelieve her and be annoying. And there is barely any romance! All and all it wasnt the worst book i've ever read but it certainly wasnt the greatest.