Web Book Report

Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie

By: Kristina Gregory

Introduction

Summary

Setting and Characters

Author Info

Book Review

Kelly - 29                    November 12, 2004                 Language Arts

 

Introduction

This is a great book to read anytime, either in bed or sitting by the fire.  It teaches you a great lesson on life and how you should be thankful for what you have.  Please take the time to read this awesome book!

 

Summary

This book is about a girl named Hattie Campbell, who is thirteen years old.  She is from Booneville, Missouri and has many friends.  She has had a very difficult past year.  During the past year her four sisters died.   She had three older sisters and one younger sister.  They died one after another from a disease, swamp fever. 

HattieŐs family was first talking about moving to Oregon when her Aunt June received a letter from a friend.  Her friend was the first white woman to travel all the way to Oregon.

When HattieŐs family starts out on the Oregon Trail, she meets anew friend right away.  Her new friendŐs name is Pepper Lewis and she is fourteen years old.  Pepper has a twin brother named Wade, who has Hattie has a crush on. 

When starting on this expedition Pepper meets a boy named Gideon who is twenty years old.  After a few weeks on the trail, Pepper and Gideon get married.  Hattie is very jealous of this marriage because she wants someone to love, someone like Wade.  She also doesnŐt like this marriage because Pepper doesnŐt hang out with Hattie as much.         

One evening while everyone was relaxing, some children went out too pick berries and never came back.  Hattie was always scared of having some little children dying.  After continuing on after this tragic event, there were many different springs and rivers.  It was very nice for everyone to get refreshed by the clean water. 

Hattie has been very uncomfortable with putting axle grease on her lips.  This was also annoying because since the axle grease was so sticky, the dust would stick to there lips.  

One morning one of the older ladies, Mrs. Kenker, came to visit my aunt because she was not feeling well.  When she was about to leave she quickly grabbed one of Ma's silver spoons.  She didn't want to tell Ma because she wouldnŐt believe her.   After a while on the trail, Hattie realized that a lot of peopleŐs materials were missing.  A few days later Hattie decided to ask another older lady, Mrs. Bigg.  Mrs. Bigg was probably one of the nicest people Hattie had ever met.  When Hattie asked her about Mrs. Kenker she knew the whole story.  When they lived back in Missoura, the Biggs were neighbors to the Kenkers.  The night they were going to head for Oregon, their house caught on fire and burned to the ground.  They lost all of their supplies and belongings.  The worst part of all was that their two grown sons, who were going to drive their wagon, died.  Hattie felt so bad so she didn't think about it again.  A couple weeks later, while crossing a very big river, my Aunt June had a baby girl.  They named her River because she was born while

They were crossing a river!  This was the happy part of crossing the river now here is the sad part.  While crossing the river, Mrs. Bigg, had fallen into the river and got sucked right in.  There was a man who went to rescue her but he got sucked in right with her, they both died.  When we reached Oregon in mid-October.  It was beautiful!  I was so glad we could finally live a normal live not thinking we had to go five hundred miles the next day!  WE lived in a house right next to Pepper!  We had a fun time on the Oregon Trail!

 

Characters

á      Hattie- Hattie is a very fun- loving, adventurous thirteen year old.  She is basically a mom to her two younger brothers.  In this story Hattie did not change very much besides the fact that she is more interested in her family and her new life

 

  • Pepper- Pepper is a very shy fourteen year old. When she begins on the Oregon Trail, she meets a boy and they get married.  She is very   different from when she started on the Oregon Trial.  She is now much more mature and ready to have many kids.  

 

  • Ma- Ma is a very calm, sweet mother.  She has had a very rough year, since her four daughters and parents died.  She had a very depressing time leaving home for Oregon, but once she got there she had made many new friends.

 

 

Setting

            This setting is a very interesting setting.  This setting is very open and dry.  It is in the mid-west traveling on the Oregon Trail.  It is very hot and there is not a lot of water.  It is very different there is no people around.

 

 

About the Author

The author of this story is Kristina Gregory.  She was born in Los Angeles, California.  She has always been interesting in writing.  She received her fiorst rejection letter for a poem at age eleven.

In college she took many courses and and jobs that had good experiences for her writing.  A few couple of her jobs were a book received and a newspaper reporter.

She now lives in Boise, Idaho and has been married for twenty years.  She lives with her husband, her two teenage sons, and two golden retrievers.
Software: Microsoft Office

 

Book Review

I would defiantly recommend this book to a friend.  I would recommend this book to a friend because it is so realistic.  This story is so realistic because the author puts this story in so much detail; you get detailed pictures in your head your head.  It also makes you realize the very tough times the people on the Oregon Trail had.  They had to be very careful traveling across rivers and traveling on Indian's territory.  This a great story!