Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #164573 in Books
• Published on: 2000-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 225 pages

From Booklist
Gr. 6-9. This lengthy, thorough book relies on diaries and memoirs to bring to life the experience of traveling westward in the mid-nineteenth century. The trip was arduous, but also adventurous, and as Kimball examines the experience, facet by facet, readers will begin to sense what an amazing feat moving west really was. About half the travelers were under 18, and it is their youthful memories that tell the story--though many of the actual accounts were written when the participants were much older. Kimball organizes her material around a series of logical topics: preparing for the trip; life on the trail; danger and disease; encounters with Native Americans; and settling down, to name a few. She also addresses pioneer prejudices against Native Americans and maintains that during the time these trails were widely used, most Indians were friendly. Though not a title young people are likely to read on their own, this can provide valuable curriculum support, and history teachers may find that selected details can spark a lively lesson. Extensive bibliography included. Denise Wilms
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Young Pioneers in Their Own Words Rocks!
My mom got me this book and I loved it. I couldn't stop reading it even when I was jumping on the trampoline. I thought it was great to read about kids like me, who were pioneers and had to go through such hard times. My favorite story in the book is one where they took some cows across a river and they had to seperate the moms and the babies and they didn't know how they would get them both across, but the moms and babies wouldn't leave each other and just swam across to stay together. What I liked most is learning how much these kids had to do on their own and how grown up they were. They worked just as much as the adults and some of them even had to take care of their families when their moms and dads died. I thought it was great that this book was made up from things these kids actually wrote and told about, so you could tell what they thought. I wish there were more books about how kids really are and what it was like to live in a different time. I think everyone should read this book.

Cherry picked quotes to prove points is not history
This hagiography of Mormonism and the Mormon exodus to Zion (as it is referred to constantly in this book), while interesting, should not be confused with an historic account. Ms. Kimball refers to "the Saints" (her capitalization, not mine) repeatedly throughout the book.

I was also interested to read that apparently the Mormons were friendly to the Indians, and helped them. They also, apparently prohibited the killing of bison for sport while others slaughtered them "by the thousands". This statement was immediately followed by an account of a herd of bison being driven off of a cliff by a party on the Mormon trail.

This book is Ms. Kimball's book, not the book of Young Pioneers "In their own words"... they are her words. She cherry-picks small pieces (sometimes as small as a single sentence) from various diaries about the Oregon, California and Mormon trails in order to prove her points.

I appreciate her effort, and the book is well written, for what it is. But it is not history. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

Written for children; interesting for adults, also.
"I can see why this book won three awards. I read "Stories of Young Pioneers, In Their Own Words" in one night. It is a fabulous, swift-moving read. Favorite things about the book: The history of black pioneers: seeing the Native American "threat" into perspective, and the profiles of individuals such as Welborn Beeson, Lizzy Flake, and the Donner, Reed Children. I wonder how much time the author spent finding a photograph of a black pioneer, (Lizzy Flake) I was grateful for the photos of the landmarks, especially Independence Rock, which would have been difficult to picture without the photo. I felt like I was there on the trail.
I appreciated how the author incorporated all three trails--The Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails--and that the illustrations enhance the history by putting us there on the trail. She must have had to pare down mounds and mounds of material to create an exciting narrative.
I wanted more, more: I wanted to know more about the brave youngsters like eight year old Nicolean Bertlesen who had to stop in St. Louis and earn money to complete her journey, and those like the orphaned Sager children who were adopted by Marcus and Narcissa Whitman; and orphaned again when the Whitmans were killed by the Cayuse.
This author has done a great job getting a variety of quotes and using original quotes from those outstanding young pioneers.