waterviolite's review
4.0
This book describes different facets of the pioneers' journeys overland during the westward expansion, from deciding whether to go, to arriving in their new states.
Each block of text is accompanied by quotes from actual children, with only minor changes made to clarify the spelling and grammar for modern readers.
15 children are featured in the book, all of whom were actual people living at the time. This includes 11 white children, a child of the Santee Sioux Nation, a child from the Northern Paiute Nation, and two African American children. Abbreviated biographies are given for each child in the book's back matter.
While no diary entries exist for the African American children featured, the author has pieced together their stories in order to provide a broader and more diverse collection of perspectives. The author tells their stories through third person to make it clear these are not direct quotes from primary sources.
The book acknowledges the hardships westward expansion created for Native peoples, acknowledging the loss of their homeland, the introduction of new diseases, and disruption of ecosystems.
Overall this book is very well written, is instructional without being dull, and forms a welcome contrast to books which pretend that white pioneers have the only perspective of importance.
Each block of text is accompanied by quotes from actual children, with only minor changes made to clarify the spelling and grammar for modern readers.
15 children are featured in the book, all of whom were actual people living at the time. This includes 11 white children, a child of the Santee Sioux Nation, a child from the Northern Paiute Nation, and two African American children. Abbreviated biographies are given for each child in the book's back matter.
While no diary entries exist for the African American children featured, the author has pieced together their stories in order to provide a broader and more diverse collection of perspectives. The author tells their stories through third person to make it clear these are not direct quotes from primary sources.
The book acknowledges the hardships westward expansion created for Native peoples, acknowledging the loss of their homeland, the introduction of new diseases, and disruption of ecosystems.
Overall this book is very well written, is instructional without being dull, and forms a welcome contrast to books which pretend that white pioneers have the only perspective of importance.
lindz's review
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
My way West tells the story of real kids that traveled the trails across the west. The children told the stories and through their quotes and paragraphs about how folks decided to move west—the journey across the Oregon trails, California Trails, and Mormon trails.
The kids told these journeys on the trails through the images and how life was on the trails. Children will be able to learn about the life and history of the US and the Oregon trails. This book shows tragedy and how everyone came together and helped each other along the way. Children can learn about this and American history by reading this book, not of it but a good glimpse of it.
I enjoy learning about the western expansion and the Oregon trails. I am one of those kinds of readers. I was learning about history through books and how life may have been back then—the dangers of it. When reading this book, I read the quotes first and then the information on the page. Tough, you can read it by doing the significant info about the journey or the topic that was talked about and then the quotes after. It doe not really make a difference in what way you read it. I enjoy that. There is no right way to read this book.
I like the focus was on the actual kids that traveled the Organ and California Trails. The author does a beautiful job of that. This book is suitable for middle-grade readers who want to learn about American history. This book would be an excellent book to have in classrooms as well.
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