Voices from the Oregon Trail by Kay Winters (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Voices from the Oregon Trail by Kay Winters Elizabeth Bush Winters, Kay. Voices from the Oregon Trail; illus. by Larry Day. Dial, 2014. [40p]. ISBN 978-0-8037-3775-4 $17.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 3-6. Winters reprises a format she employed in Colonial Voices (BCCB 5/08) and Voices of Ancient Egypt (BCCB 2/03) to recreate the experiences of common people in historically significant eras. Here fifteen overlanders and a Sioux scout comment in free-verse poems about personal episodes that illuminate typical occurrences along the wagon route from Missouri to Oregon in the mid 1800s. Patience Mills has no choice but to follow her husband once he sells the family farm, even though it means leaving behind the grave of her baby son. Carl Hawks, son of the wagon master, embraces the excitement of the journey and his considerable responsibilities, even as he worries about repeats of previous disasters. A three-year-old is lost in a river crossing, a pair of teens meet and marry, the Indian scout ponders the changes the settlers bring (“No good can come of this”), a farmer revels in a buffalo hunt, a young man helps lower his wagon down a three-hundred-foot drop. Many stories interconnect and the voices are lively and engaging, although each individual is given only a single hearing, leaving readers unable to gauge changes in attitude along the way. Copious endnotes expand on various aspects of wagon train organization, and Day’s detailed watercolor artwork nimbly switches mood from the grief of a mother making a last visit at her child’s tombstone, to the cowpie-slinging antics of kids inventing their own fun to shake off boredom. This format will enliven middle-grades history classes as a readaloud or, better still, asan adaptable script for readers theater. [End Page 340] Copyright © 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois