Kristiana Gregory

Now that we're in the North Platte River Valley the air feels dry and thin. My lips are so chapped they bleed when I talk. The only thing to do is dip our fingers in to the bucket of axle grease and rub our lips every hour or so. It smells bad, it tastes bad, and the blowing dust sticks. It feels like we must be halfway to Oregon, but Tall Joe says, no, we've only gone five hundred miles. He also says the worst part of the trail is to come. Does he mean more rivers to cross...? I'm afraid to ask what he's talking about.

Kristiana Gregory's first My America , book one of Hope's Diary, details life in Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War. As tensions rise between the Tories and Patriots, Hope's life in Philadelphia becomes more confusing. Will Papa ever return from his voyage? Has he been killed, or worse become a Tory? When Hope's thirteen-year-old brother Ethan proclaims that he too is a Tory, it seems that the family is falling apart. Hope ends her diary sure that Papa and Ethan will return.

A diary account of fourteen-year-old Susanna Fairchild's life in 1849, when her father succumbs to gold fever on the way to establish his medical practice in Oregon after losing his wife and money on their steamship journey from New York. Includes a historical note.A diary account of fourteen-year-old Susanna Fairchild's life in 1849, when her father succumbs to gold fever on the way to establish his medical practice in Oregon after losing his wife and money on their steamship journey from New York.