About This Book

In an engaging, accessible tone, Newbery Medalist Russell Freedman gives today's young readers an insight into the lives of kids growing up in the American West in the late 19th century. He describes the experience of traveling west by wagon train, exploring the reactions of pioneer children to life on the road, school days, holidays, and their encounters — both good and bad — with Native Americans. He also looks at the unique experiences of the Native American children, growing up at a time when the influx of white settlers was turning their world upside-down. Whatever their circumstances, the resourceful children of the West demonstrated the infinite adaptability of children everywhere.

Illustrated with authentic black-and-white photographs, this fascinating overview has an immediacy that compels readers to think about history and their own relationship to it. A marvelous classroom resource, it can be used as a jumping-off point for discussion of historical and social issues, or for comparison of the lives and circumstances of children in the past with today's young students. Freedman has written many acclaimed pictorial histories, among them two others that focus on children's history: Immigrant Kids and Kids at Work.