Sunsets Of The West (Sweep, 12)

By Tony Johnston and Jennifer Coburn

When Pa decides to leave New Hampshire and head west, it's a decision that affects the whole family. They all must pack up and leave, pulled forward by their dreams. But the dreams must share the trek with tears. Tears for the days without rain, then tears for the bullet rain that comes, for the swelling rivers that carry their cow and chickens away, for the graves they pass. The family keeps its hopes alive by singing songs: storm songs, wheel-fixing songs, songs for going on. Tony Johnston's graceful story harmonizes perfectly with Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator Ted Lewin's lifelike watercolors, giving readers a strong feeling for one pioneer family's triumphant struggle on the westward journey to a new home.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399226591
• ISBN13: 9780399226595
• Release Date: June 2002
• Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
• Length: 40 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 12.3" x 0.4" x 10.1"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

Westward Ho.....

"Once a man felt a stirring in his heart, an itching to roam. And he felt pinched for space. He knew the stars of Maine. He knew the blaze of fall leaves burning New Hampshire hills. Still, he longed to know the endless prairie. The Sierra with snow. "Gather your neccessaries, " Pa said one day. "We're going West." So begins Tony Johnston's engrossing narrative of a New England family's journey, across the wide prairies and desert sand, west to the Sierra mountains and what will become their new home. His straightforward text is filled with drama, history and emotion as the family faces the many challenges of traveling months by covered wagon, losing their cow and chickens in rain swollen rivers, feeling the threat from wild animals and Native Americans trying to hold on to their land, struggling with hunger and thirst as food and water run out, and death. Ted Lewin's powerfully evocative illustrations of sunfilled fields, dark and ominous nights, a buffalo stampede, and the red and golden sunrise over the Sierras brings the story to life. Together word and art transport the reader back in time and takes you on the arduous journey of a lifetime. Perfect for youngsters 7-10, Sunsets Of The West is an inspiring story of the many trials, hope, bravery, and finally triumph. "The family built a house and tilled a patch of land. Then they planted the seeds. And the seeds grew tall. Sometimes they remembered the stars of Maine. Sometimes they recalled the blaze of fall leaves on New Hampshire hills. But they had seen the endless prairie. The Sierra with snow. Their hearts were at rest. They knew the sunsets of the West."

GLOWING ILLUSTRATIONS ADD LUSTER TO THIS STORY

Tony Johnston opens his saga of a pioneer family trekking westward with an apt quotation from Louis L'Amour's "The Quick and the Dead," "Many have died, Suzanna, but more will come. There are always people who hope, who wish, who dream." Hope, wish and dream is precisely what this family does as they reluctantly say farewell to the familiar in New Hampshire, and set out for the unknown. As explained in a reader's note, it would take a family a full month to travel by covered wagon from New England to Missouri, the spot where wagon trains set out for the West. Their journey would begin in mid-May after the worst of winter and when prairie grass had grown tall enough to feed their livestock. If good fortune shone on them their entire trip would last six or seven months. One had to be hardy to endure such a passage. They took only their necessities and a few items that they loved. Joyful times occurred when they joined other families around an evening campfire. Danger lay in wait for them with wild animals and Indians. A broken wheel was a disaster; death a companion. Still they soldiered on until at last they reached the land of their dreams. Ted Lewin's glowing full-page illustrations add a luster to this story of our forefathers. - Gail Cooke