Land of the Buffalo Bones: The Diary of Mary Elizabeth Rodgers, an English Girl in Minnesota

by Marion Dane Bauer and Tricia Levenseller

After following her father from their home in England to the plains of Minnesota, Mary must summon the strength to face the challenges and heartbreaking losses that she and her family encounter. "Land... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0439220270
• ISBN13: 9780439220279
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Dear America
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

Five Stars

A very interesting Dear America story. American history is filled with different religious groups who come here this one is about Mary Ann Elizabeth Rodger also know as Polly who comes to America from England where her father and his congregation moves from England to Minnesota. Notihng goes as her father had planned. The voyage was terrible and the land in Minnesota was barren and only thing they could afford to live in are sod homes. Polly experiences the freezing Minnesota winter and the hot summers and insects. All Polly can think about is everything that was better back home andall they used to have. The congregation ends up rejecting their reverend and her family heads off to find a new home. I thoroughly enjoyed this book which is based on the writer's own family experience it also reminded me of my own experiences. I've spent a lot of time in Minnesota and could easily relate to the freezing winters and the hot summers filled with insects. Polly, her father and family reminded me of my own great-grandfather and his family. His father was also reverend in our family. It was fun reading a story about someone else's family while being reminded through out the story of my own.

A Very Good Book

Mary Elizabeth, or Polly, is caught up in the dramatic jorney to the harsh, cold, badlands of Minnesota, Land of the Buffalo Bones from her safe home in her native land of England. She and her family wither through the long, hard voyage, eroding away with every day. When the battle is finnaly overcome, the climate and conditions in Minnesota are not as good as expected to be. The people of the party and Mary Elizabeth's family suffer through a long winter. But once the winter beging to fade away, she finds that life in Minnesota is not as bad as she generally expected and presumed it to be. When she becomes wrapped up in the frightening buisness of the Native American people, the book grows exiting and page-turning. When her best friend runs away with a yound Native-American man, escaping the clutches of her abusive father Mary Elizabeth isn't sure whether to be happy or sad. This well-written book takes readers on a journey down a powerful, well-described path, and into the pages of Mary Elizabeth's own diary.

Very interesting

This book is different in that, unlike other diaries, this family actually existed. That fact alone made it much more appealing. The Rodgers family, along with several other families, immigrate from England to a land that is supposed to be "perfect in every way" Too later, they realize that they have been lied to and there is no turning back. The blame is put on her dad because he's the one who started the whole thing. I enjoyed this book from cover to cover, and I highly recommend it to anyone!

A Family Story Retold

Land of the Buffalo Bones is the story of Polly Rodgers, a young girl whose father is a Baptist minster who organizes 80 religously persecuted Baptists in Yeovil, England, to colonize the Minnesota Territory in the New Yeovil Colony. Although the advertisments and her father's false words tell of a wonderful and bountiful country, the 80 colonists come upon a surprise when they reach the colony--which isn't built, is covered in snow, and is in the middle of nowhere with no trees or parks or houses or anything of the sort that was promised. After the grueling ship ride over, this hardship is even worse. Soddies are built quickly for the many families, as is one for the Rodgers, since their father is not expected to work with his hands. However, all the land brings is despair. Locusts attack and destroy the crops that the first time at farming colonists grow, Polly's best friend's family is destroyed with the death of the mother and brother and the runaway of her best friend to be married to a Native American. However, the land brings Polly and her step-mother closer together and many of her other family members, despite Laura's constant pesturing. However, even though her father is taken away from his position as minister and the Rodgers must move onto a new colony, they leave happy and together, knowing they will make it.This diary is based on the author's family, the Rodgers, and was an interesting and treasuring contribution to the series. Although I would recommend Love Thy Neighbor more out of the two new books, this diary was still very good, very unique, and worth you time.

A good new Dear America book.

Mary Ann Elizabeth Rodgers, called Polly by her family, is the fourteen-year-old daughter of a Baptist minister. She was born and raised in England, but now her father has decided to move the family to Minnesota in search of religious freedom. Polly begins her diary on the journey by steamship to America and describes the challenges her family and friends face on their journey to their new home, challenges that do not end once they reach Minnesota. The Rodgers and their fellow settlers face the bitter cold of winter and the scorching heat of summer, endless blizzards, a disastrous plague of locusts, as well as illness and death. Land of the Buffalo Bones is an excellent addition to the Dear America series that described the hardships of life on the prairie in the 1870s. It is unique among the books of the series in that it is based on the life of a real person from the author's family. I recommend this book to all fans of the series.