To the Discussion Leader
Kathryn Lasky, Newbery Honor winner and author of more than forty books for children and adults says, "To me, the whole point of being an artist is being able to get up every morning and reinvent the world." For her first book in the My Name Is America series, the world she chooses to reinvent is the 1804 period of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Through the journal entries of fourteen-year-old Augustus Pelletier, youngsters join the Corps of Discovery as they take up President Thomas Jefferson's challenge to find a Northwest Passage — a river route across the continent through the western mountains, to the Pacific Ocean.
Pelletier's journal is replete with round character portraits of historical figures from William Clark to Sacajawea to Meriwether Lewis. Through word pictures Augustus describes the uncharted world from Missouri on up to North Dakota and then west over to the Pacific Ocean. Along the way readers watch Gus mature, face hardships, and display courage. Readers come to understand how two very different men, Lewis and Clark, could play off of each other's strengths and fill in each other's weaknesses, and together display leadership, ingenuity, negotiation skills, and the discipline necessary to chart an America unknown to all but the Native Americans who helped the Corps along the way.
Summary
When your mother dies and your drunken stepfather almost cuts off your ear, it's time to get out. To fourteen-year-old Augustus Pelletier the lure of adventure with Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery, soon to depart from his hometown of St. Charles, is too tempting to resist. But why would Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark want Gus, a scrawny "little kid hardly no bigger than a feed bag?" He'll have to prove himself worthy. So, on May 21, 1804, Gus sets off following the expedition, watching their every move from a safe distance, "shadowing" he calls it.
After walking about 200 miles, Gus makes his presence known to the commanding captain of the Corps of Discovery, Meriwether Lewis, himself. Gus' ability to read and write makes him useful for recording important information about geography and plant and animal life along the way.
As the expedition follows the rivers westward, hoping to find a water route to the Shining Sea (Pacific Ocean), Gus experiences things he never even dreamed about. He sees great herds of buffalo and large flocks of swans. He becomes friends with a prairie dog and witnesses the spectacular northern lights. He becomes good at scientific measurement and taxidermy. He grieves for Sergeant Charley Floyd, his friend and fellow member of the Corps, the first U. S soldier to die west of the Mississippi. Gus encounters many Indians along the way, but none make so great an impression as fifteen-year-old Sacajawea, the Shoshoni wife of a French trapper. Sacajawea is pregnant when she joins the expedition in November 1804. Three months later she gives birth to a son named Jean Baptiste or "Pomp." With Sacajawea's help the travelers negotiate mountains, rapids, and waterfalls. At one point Sacajawea is reunited with her Shoshoni people and has a tearful meeting with her brother and her childhood best friend.
The expedition pushes on through the treacherous Columbia River Falls until they can travel no further. They have finally reached the Pacific Ocean and, in the six months, have traveled approximately 4,124 miles. Gus is overwhelmed. He writes, "I cannot believe how far I have come. I have crossed mountains and paddled many a long river. I have held a baby and made a friend named Bird Woman. I have learned my true place standing on earth using the stars, .. and now I have come to the Shining Sea."
Thinking About the Book
1. Why did President Thomas Jefferson ask Congress to fund the Lewis and Clark Expedition? What was the goal of the expedition?
2. Other than Augustus, which character do you think is the most important in this journal? Explain your choice.
3. If you had to choose one of the following words that you think best describes what this book is about, would you chose dreams, home, or courage? Why?
4. Captain Lewis and Captain Clark are depicted as very different kinds of men. Why do you think they got along so well? Which one would you likely be friends with? Why?
5. On August 27, 1805, Augustus writes that Sacajawea was "forever caught between worlds, not quite alive and not quite dead." What does Augustus mean? Do you agree with him?
6. It is often said that "knowledge is power." How is this statement true in the life of Augustus Pelletier?
Student Activities
1. Divide the following terms among the members of your discussion group. Ask each person to define the term and explain its importance in The Journal of Augustus Pelletier.
taxidermy
sextant
Camp Wood
pirogues
Fort Clatsop
keelboat
2. On September 25, 1804, Augustus writes that he learned one of the most important lessons in his life. What was that lesson? Ask each member of your discussion group to recall a time when he/she learned the importance of this lesson.
3. In your discussion group, vote on the most memorable scene in the journal. Compare your results with other groups. Which scene turns out to be the most memorable? Why? At the time of the Lewis and Clark Expedition there were no cameras to record the scenery, although people like Gus sketched or painted the plant and animal life and landscape. To see what some of the scenery along the Lewis and Clark trail looked like, check out http://www.airphotona.com/Stock/Images.asp and click on "Lewis and Clark."
4. Read the journal entry for March 6, 1805. Have a discussion explaining why Augustus is described as being "like the fat man eating buffalo hump while complaining about being hungry and skinny."
5. Gus' journal ends on November 14, 1805, the day the Corps of Discovery reaches the Pacific Ocean. Do you think Gus returned with the Corps to St. Louis? Look up http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/archive/idx_time.html to read about the trip back. You can also view the round trip route they traveled at http://staff.washington.edu/~muzi/LC/LCmap.html Write several entries of Gus' journal about his return trip.
6. Sacajawea is characterized as a bright, capable, sensitive, and courageous person. To find out more about Sacajawea, check out http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/inside/saca.html What new facts do you learn about her? Take a look at the new one-dollar "gold" coin. Does the image of Sacajawea on the coin match the picture you've had of her as you've read Gus's journal? Why or why not?
An Interview with Kathryn Lasky
Richard F. Abrahamson, Ph.D. & Eleanore S. Tyson, Ed.D.: You've written two Dear America books and two Royal Diaries all featuring female main characters. How was it different writing a story with a male main character? Did the writing of a journal differ from the diaries?
Kathryn Lasky: Well, I guess the obvious answer is that this journal had a lot more physicality in it, a lot more physical action. This is not because boys are more action oriented. It's merely because it was the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the setting was not court life or the streets of New York. Although I must say that in the Diary of Remember Patience Whipple the Mayflower and the Plimoth Plantation offered plenty of physical challenges. But I still feel that these are rather superficial differences. I did not find that writing a diary with a lead male character differed in any essential way from writing one with a female character. They all had the same challenges in terms of attempting to establish an identity, coping with loneliness, friendships, relationships.
RFA & EST: Several times in The Journal of Augustus Pelletier you include quotes from diaries and letters of Lewis and Clark. What role did the actual diaries of men on the Expedition play in your writing of Pelletier's journal?
KL: The diaries were vital. I kept two sets on my lap while I was writing at all
times. I really found the version edited by Bernard Devoto very helpful. The
role they played was rather straightforward. I could check an exact location
of where they were on what day of the expedition. The diaries were also very helpful in letting me know what the weather was like on a particular day. So if it was raining on May 5th, I made it rain in the diary on that day. The weather in Augustus' diary is very closely matched to the actual weather on the trip. I could keep track of what they hunted, what they ate, and also the changing geography and character of the river.
RFA & EST: What surprised you most in your research on Sacajawea and Charbonneau?
KL: I had not realized what a brutal foolish man Charbonneau was. And I don't think I realized how young Sacajawea was and that she was basically an abused young woman.
RFA & EST:Do you view Sacajawea as a tragic figure? You write that she is "like the badger, forever caught between worlds, not quite alive and not quite dead."
KL: That is a very good question, and I have to answer it in terms of my personal perspective on the meaning of tragedy in a person's life. Some might disagree. I think Sacajawea was caught in a series of tragic situations — her kidnapping as a child, her being passed from tribe to tribe, being sold into marriage. However, I never thought of her as a tragic figure. I do not think she was a victim in the way we think of tragic figures. She was essentially an active not a passive person and she had a remarkable capacity for adapting. She was a survivor.
RFA & EST: Throughout the book you mention various remedies, some natural and others manufactured, that the explorers used to cure their diseases and soothe their pain. What was your source for these primitive medicines?
KL: Most of my sources for these remedies came straight out of the Lewis and Clark journals. Dr. Rush was one of the most eminent doctors in America at that time and he provided the expedition with an incredible medical kit. I also discovered some articles in recent medical journals about medicine on the Lewis and Clark expedition that were helpful.
RFA & EST: You portray Lewis and Clark as good friends but very different from one another. Which of these men did you find most interesting? Why?
KL: The most interesting was Lewis. The most appealing was Clark. Lewis was interesting because of his mental illness. He was manic depressive. Manic depressive people often have incredible energy and a slightly skewed but nonetheless valid way of looking at things. And if there is one thing that Lewis did on this trip, it was look. There was not a rock, a bird, a flower that escaped his inquiry. His drawings, I thought, were beautiful. It was Lewis's perspective of this country unfolding before his eyes that just enraptured me.
RFA & EST: If you could ask young readers of Pelletier's journal one question when they finished the book, what would that question be?
KL: Augustus Pelletier had an experience that no one can really repeat today because of television and assorted media. I call this experience First Sight. He and the other members of the Corps of Discovery were the first white people to see this land. His vision had to be pure and untouched because of the absence of television, etc. My question is what does this do to a person to be the first one to see something, to be the first to experience it? I also have a subsidiary but related question. I think the Lewis and Clark Expedition was the greatest undertaking in American History. I think landing a man on the moon pales next to it. I wonder what other people think.
RFA & EST: What is one thing you hope young readers will take with them after reading The Journal of Augustus Pelletier?
KL: I guess I would hope that readers would realize that Lewis and Clark's accomplishment was truly monumental. It was not only that they traveled so far and saw so much; it was that they developed a trust among the members of the corps and, in truth, an ideal little democratic society. There were two times during the expedition that a vote was taken concerning certain issues. On both these occasions York, the black slave of Clark, participated in the vote. One must remember that this was sixty years before the Civil War. This expedition was not just one of courage and endurance but one that was marked by incredible creativity, imagination, and the highest moral standards.
Discussion Guide written by Richard F. Abrahamson, Ph.D., Professor of Literature for
Children and Young Adults, University of Houston, Houston, Texas and Eleanore S.
Tyson, Ed.D., Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Houston, Department of
Curriculum and Instruction. Houston, Texas.
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