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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... McMinnville Public Library | Dear America My America | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Salem Main Library | J Dear | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Stayton Public Library | JF DEAR AS FAR | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
In Kate McMullan's first book for the My America line, the drama and adventure of the American prairie are brought to life when Margaret Cora Wells, known as Meg, must move away from her family to avoid the cholera epidemic in St. Louis.
Author Notes
Kate McMullan was born in 1947 in St. Louis, Missouri. She received a Bachelor's degree in elementary education at the University of Tulsa and a Master's degree in early childhood education from Ohio State University. She taught elementary school in inner-city Los Angeles and on an American Air Force base in Germany. In 1976, she moved to New York City and became an editor of language arts and audiovisual materials for a publishing house.
She has written over 50 children's books under the names Kate McMullan, Katy Hall, and K. H. McMullan. The book, I Stink!, won a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor. Nutcracker Noel and Hey, Pipsqueak, which were illustrated by her husband Jim McMullan, were voted among the New York Times Ten Best Picture Books of the Year. She writes the Dragon Slayers' Academy series and the Fluffy, the Classroom Guinea Pig series.
She also teaches at New York University's School of Continuing and Professional Studies and is a member of the faculty of the New School's MFA Writing Program.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5-Revealing life in Missouri in 1856, Meg writes about happy excursions to an ice-cream parlor as well as a horrific scene of a slave auction. When cholera spreads through St. Louis and infects her mother and baby sister, the protagonist and her younger brother, Preston, are sent to live with relatives in the Kansas Territory. Traveling by steamship via the Mississippi and then the Missouri rivers, they finally reach their destination. A city girl, Meg learns to love the wide-open prairie and matures under the brilliant Kansas sky. She helps hide a runaway slave and nurses Preston back to health when he comes down with a dreadful fever. At the end of the brief novel, Meg's mother and sister, fully recovered, journey to Kansas; her father will soon join them and settle there. This easy-to-read book introduces issues such as slavery, gambling, and women's rights; social movements, such as the community of Neosho, KS, which was founded by vegetarians; as well as historical events, such as the violent disputes among Border Ruffians, Southern sympathizers, and those settlers who wanted Kansas to be a free state. Notes and information about the author are included. Fans of the series will not be disappointed.-Shawn Brommer, South Central Library System, Madison, WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
This straightforward tale chronicles nine-year-old Meg Wells's transformation from city girl to pioneer. Through her short diary entries, Meg tells of her encounters with disease and danger during her westward journey. The battle over slavery in the western territories is addressed in a simple yet meaningful way. An illustrated historical note provides more information about life in the midwestern states during the mid-1800s. From HORN BOOK Spring 2003, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Meg Wells's diary, the newest addition to the popular My America series, tells the story of two-and-a-half months in a St. Louis girl's life in 1856. Meg and her little brother, Preston, live in a loving family with their parents and little sister, Grace. Life is filled with the excitement of the big city: steamboats, ice cream parlors, hoopskirts, and fancy hotels. But all is not idyllic. The family lives with ghost of the 1849 cholera epidemic, when their older siblings lost their lives. Then there is the growing tension about the role of slavery in Kansas, which is soon to become a state. If that isn't enough, another outbreak of cholera has hit the family. Once Grace and Mrs. Wells become ill, their distraught mother trundles Meg and Preston off to what she hopes will be the safety of Kansas, where their Aunt Margaret lives. The story flows better than many epistolary novels. Meg's voice does not stray from that of a well-educated, somewhat prim nine-year-old. Her horror and fear are appropriately innocent when she accidentally witnesses a slave auction. Meg and Preston have many adventures: the steamship runs into a sandbar and lists dangerously; the passengers rush to each meal, causing a human stampede; and they actually become part of the Underground Railroad. Large font, short passages, and interesting facts and details are packed into this earnest adventure for readers just ready for chapter books. A good companion to Deborah Hopkinson's Pioneer Summer (p. 570). (historical note) (Fiction. 7-10)
Booklist Review
Gr. 2-4. When her mother and sister come down with cholera in 1856, Meg and her brother are sent away from their St. Louis home for the sake of their health. A family friend escorts the children by riverboat and wagon to their aunt and uncle's Kansas homestead. Meg quickly adjusts to life on the prairie, where her relatives use buffalo chips for fuel, wear cotton instead of silk, and offer their cabin as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Previously shocked by the sight of a slave auction in St. Louis, Meg has the satisfaction of helping a young slave escape. An appended section, «Life in America in 1865,» offers background information illustrated with period prints. The large type and the diary format make the book accessible to young readers, but when a short chapter book includes as many people, settings, and events as this one, it leaves little room for the development of the characters or the treatment of complex issues. Still, libraries looking for short historical fiction may want to add this book from the My America series to their collections. Carolyn Phelan.