Back when I was a kid, if you wanted to read about families going west, you read a book by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Wilder's The Little House on the Prairie series, published between 1932 and 1943, were based on her childhood in a settler and pioneer family. By my childhood in the 1960s, the books were considered classics. They have been continuously in print and have been translated into 40 other languages..
If you look up Best Sellers in Children's 1800 American Historical Fiction on Amazon, chances are you will find Wilder's books high in the rankings. Today when I looked, she held the #1, #4, #5 and #6 places among the top ten: not bad for books that are seventy and eighty years old! Wilder was a runner-up for the Newberry Medal, five five times, and when the American Library Association (ALA) created a lifetime achievement award for children's writers and illustrators in 1954, she was not only the first recipient, but the award was named for her.
If you look up Best Sellers in Children's 1800 American Historical Fiction on Amazon, chances are you will find Wilder's books high in the rankings. Today when I looked, she held the #1, #4, #5 and #6 places among the top ten: not bad for books that are seventy and eighty years old! Wilder was a runner-up for the Newberry Medal, five five times, and when the American Library Association (ALA) created a lifetime achievement award for children's writers and illustrators in 1954, she was not only the first recipient, but the award was named for her.
A screen shot from 8/20/2024
But times change, and with them, tastes and sensibilities in books, and in recent years, the bloom has faded a bit on the Wilder rose. While still popular, critics have pointed out that many of the Little House books include stereotypical and reductive depictions of Native Americans and people of color, and the story they tell is a White story, giving many people the perception that the western expansion was exclusively the story of the dominant culture taking over the land.
Lesa Cline-Ransome's new middle grade novel, One Big Open Sky opens up the story of families moving west, making it more inclusive and offering the familiar tale in a way that has long been ignored.
In lyrical free verse, it tells the story of Black Americans seeking a better life in the west during post civil war reconstruction.
Ten families take the arduous journey from Mississippi to North Platte, Nebraska seeking acceptance and land of their own. They face dangerous weather, river crossings, threatening mobs, deprivation and death, but their faith and their hope in the future keep them going.
Three characters tell the story. Lettie is a perceptive girl who keeps a log of the journey. She loves her father dearly, despite his faults, which endanger the family. Losing his family when he was a child and a slave has damaged his self worth, and he is continuously trying to prove himself. Her mother, Sylvia, struggles with self determination. Years of being a slave or married to a strong-willed man has left her passive, and she must learn to be strong on this journey. The third voice is that of Philomenia, a strong-willed young woman determined to become a teacher and her own woman after years of living with the knowledge that she was a burden to the aunt and uncle who reluctantly took her in when her parents died.
Because two of the three point of view characters are adult, this story is best for older middle grade readers. It presents serious issues, including enslavement, racism, sexism, and death, and would be excellent for classroom discussion. I think this book is excellent for adult readers, too.
I have one ARC of One Big Open Sky that I would like to give away to another reader now that I have finished with it. If you'd like to be considered, leave a comment.
In lyrical free verse, it tells the story of Black Americans seeking a better life in the west during post civil war reconstruction.
Ten families take the arduous journey from Mississippi to North Platte, Nebraska seeking acceptance and land of their own. They face dangerous weather, river crossings, threatening mobs, deprivation and death, but their faith and their hope in the future keep them going.
Three characters tell the story. Lettie is a perceptive girl who keeps a log of the journey. She loves her father dearly, despite his faults, which endanger the family. Losing his family when he was a child and a slave has damaged his self worth, and he is continuously trying to prove himself. Her mother, Sylvia, struggles with self determination. Years of being a slave or married to a strong-willed man has left her passive, and she must learn to be strong on this journey. The third voice is that of Philomenia, a strong-willed young woman determined to become a teacher and her own woman after years of living with the knowledge that she was a burden to the aunt and uncle who reluctantly took her in when her parents died.
Because two of the three point of view characters are adult, this story is best for older middle grade readers. It presents serious issues, including enslavement, racism, sexism, and death, and would be excellent for classroom discussion. I think this book is excellent for adult readers, too.
I have one ARC of One Big Open Sky that I would like to give away to another reader now that I have finished with it. If you'd like to be considered, leave a comment.
Jennifer Bohnhoff is a former middle school English and Social Studies teacher who now writes historical and contemporary fiction for middle grade and adult readers. The Famished Country, book 3 in the Rebels Along the Rio Grande, will be published by Kinkajou Press in October of 2024 and is now available for preorder.
