School Library Journal

Gr 1-3-- Seven-year-old Hannah describes her family's journey west and their first year of settlement on the vast American prairie. Her story includes incidents similar to those found in Laura Ingalls Wilder's ``Little House'' books (HarperCollins) and in Brett Harvey's My Prairie Year (1986) and Cassie's Journey (1987, both Holiday), but is for younger audiences. Van Leeuwen provides a more general description of settlers' lives that seems almost ahistoric; no clear place or time period is established. The family travels by Conestoga wagon, yet they make the trip alone. The distances covered seem vast, but that is perhaps due to the perspective of the young narrator. The requisite encounter with Native Americans is benign, with the family and uninvited guests sharing donuts and smiles all around. Allen's chalk illustrations on brown textured paper have a soft unfocused quality that appropriately gives the sense of being a reminiscence. Although this book does not add new material for children studying westward expansion, the simple vocabulary and evocative pictures provide a quiet beginning for general discussions about the past. --Barbara Chatton, College of Education, University of Wyoming, Laramie

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

A seven-year-old girl narrates her family's journey west; as PW said in a starred review, """"Like pages torn from a frontier journal, stirring sketches and lyrical text form a moving tribute"""" to pioneer families. Ages 5-9. (Aug.)

Starred Review ALA Booklist (Sat Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 1992)

Starred Review A moving look at a pioneer family's journey westward to make a new home for themselves on the prairie. Told from the point of view of seven-year-old Hannah, the narrative relates the difficulties of the journey in the overpacked covered wagon, the beauty of the land they've chosen to farm, the hard work of building a house, the loneliness of the sparsely populated prairie, the struggle to grow and hunt their food, and the promise of the future. There's a pleasing simplicity about the writing and a wholesome sense of realism about the pioneer experience. Beautifully drawn in charcoal, pastel, and color pencil on a tan background, the artwork takes an earthy, rather somber tone from its predominant browns and grays, while highlights of white and soft colors illuminate the scene. Pair this effective evocation of the hardships and rewards of pioneer life with Lydon's A Birthday for Blue , another quiet picture book that brings pioneer life into focus. (Reviewed Feb. 1, 1992)

Kirkus Reviews

A seven-year-old narrates the experiences of her family of five: setting out from their home in the East (Mama cries at leaving her sisters and her piano); leading the cow behind their covered wagon; building a log cabin on the prairie; the troubles of a first year (a failed crop and the loneliness before a neighbor moves in); renewed hope in the spring. Van Leeuwen's text is quiet and undramatic, but the details are authentic and well chosen to give the immediacy of reminiscence. Allen's gentle illustrations—charcoal, pastel, and colored pencils on a soft, textured beige ground—are the more evocative for being impressionistically undefined, with faces blurred and landscapes indicated with just a few suggestive strokes and muted but precisely observed colors: the glow of a candlelit fireside, the gleam of new snow under a leaden sky. A fine prelude or companion to Wilder's books, especially the perceptive illustrations. (Picture book. 5-9)"

Horn Book (Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 1992)

Seven-year-old Hannah tells of her family's long, lonely emigration in a covered wagon to the prairie, where they build a new house and a new life. The narration is a fine balance of objective description and childlike concern. Allen's charcoal, pastel, and colored-pencil illustrations on grainy tan paper are in blurred earth colors, catching the spirit of the story.