Reviews
A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple, Mayflower, 1620 by Kathryn Lasky
meganreads5's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
zenithharpink's review
4.0
I was riveted by this book, and blazed through in it about an hour - I really wished it was longer. I'm not sure of the historical accuracy, but I loved the narrative, and felt like I was right there with "Mem." This really brought the adventure of the Mayflower pilgrims to life, and certainly makes it available for juvenile readers.
I recommend this all readers - I really enjoyed it when I first read it when I was younger, and I really enjoyed it the second time around.
I recommend this all readers - I really enjoyed it when I first read it when I was younger, and I really enjoyed it the second time around.
clevergirl216's review
adventurous
informative
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
I usually like the Dear America books, but this one just didn't catch my interest. I felt like the characters were fairly flat.
jdalton's review against another edition
5.0
When I read this as a young girl I didn’t know I had ancestors who were on this ship, so reading this time was different for me and imagining what life was like for my ancestors.
sammi_jo's review
4.0
This is a cute little book that gives a little look into the life of a pilgrim child. It tells of the good and the bad through a child's eyes. I am from Hingham, Mass and I have had many childhood trips to Plymouth. This book found a way to my heart, hearing familiar names and about the beginning if the settlement which later developed into a colony and eventually my home state.
huncamuncamouse's review
3.0
3.5 stars, but I'm rounding down simply because I remember enjoying this as a kid a lot more than I did now. It makes sense to start the Dear America series with a young pilgrim's voyage to the New World. However, the boat ride becomes tedious/repetitive, and it dominates half the novel. There's a lot of clunkiness with the diary format--including how characters are introduced (or not). Some sort of character chart in the frontmatter would have been helpful.
I remembered being horrified by the descriptions of torture (I learned what being hung, drawn, and quartered was from this book), but what I'd forgotten was just how much death dominates this narrative.* There's very little reflection about it; there are glimpses that Remember is skilled at providing comfort to others who are sick and/or dying. Remember has a surprisingly friendly, open attitudes toward the indigenous people she meets. However, it's a fine line between friendliness and exoticism, and this book falls into that a bit. I also seriously doubt that Remember's parents were just letting her go exploring all the time on her own and chatting with Squanto and other adult men (native or otherwise).
The biggest weakness of this book is the lack of character development for Remember's parents. The father is barely even mentioned until the second half, and it just seemed like a curious choice to have so few interactions between Remember and her family. All in all, this was a perfectly fine beginning to the series, but I know better ones are up ahead.
*Dorothy Bradford definitely dies intentionally, right?
Dear parent count: 1. Bonus: tons of people die in the first year of the "settlement."
I remembered being horrified by the descriptions of torture (I learned what being hung, drawn, and quartered was from this book), but what I'd forgotten was just how much death dominates this narrative.* There's very little reflection about it; there are glimpses that Remember is skilled at providing comfort to others who are sick and/or dying. Remember has a surprisingly friendly, open attitudes toward the indigenous people she meets. However, it's a fine line between friendliness and exoticism, and this book falls into that a bit. I also seriously doubt that Remember's parents were just letting her go exploring all the time on her own and chatting with Squanto and other adult men (native or otherwise).
The biggest weakness of this book is the lack of character development for Remember's parents. The father is barely even mentioned until the second half, and it just seemed like a curious choice to have so few interactions between Remember and her family. All in all, this was a perfectly fine beginning to the series, but I know better ones are up ahead.
*Dorothy Bradford definitely dies intentionally, right?
Dear parent count: 1. Bonus: tons of people die in the first year of the "settlement."
rosexgold's review
2.0
I read a million of these books in elementary school and barely remember them so thought it might be interesting to give them another read and learn all the basic history I should already know.
The story was fine. Kind of boring but I was kind of expecting it.
The story is fiction. There is a section at the end that's supposed to be the "real facts" about what happened...but it completely contradicts the story. So if the author had all that research and knew the facts, why not write the story more factual in the first place??
The story was fine. Kind of boring but I was kind of expecting it.
The story is fiction. There is a section at the end that's supposed to be the "real facts" about what happened...but it completely contradicts the story. So if the author had all that research and knew the facts, why not write the story more factual in the first place??
musiquedevie's review
4.0
A great read by Kathryn Lasky that helps to put you in the shoes of a young girl in the New World.