You Wouldn’t Want to be an American Pioneer

Title: You Wouldn’t Want to be an American Pioneer: A Wilderness You’d Rather Not Tame
Author: Jacqueline Morley
Series: You Wouldn’t Want to…American History
Major Themes: Pioneers, Oregon Trail
Synopsis: Concise text and comic-style drawings help children learn about the Oregon Trail and what it was like to travel it.

It’s fun to learn history from a book like You Wouldn’t Want to Be an American Pioneer! This is the kind of book that most of my children will pick up and leaf through if they find it laying around the living room. The comic-style pictures and little blocks of text make it attractive and easy to spend time with a book from this series. 

As you read this book, imagine that you are a pioneer moving west on the Oregon Trail. What will you experience? What do you have to do to survive? Start out by loading your wagon—what will you take and what will you leave behind? Make sure you travel with other people, and help to choose the right person to lead your wagon train. 

Once on the trail, what dangers will you come across? Storms, Indians, a buffalo stampede, and river crossings are only a few of the hazards. Then, there are the discomforts, like food that isn’t very appetizing. What will you eat on the trail, anyway? Then, when you reach the end of the trail, you won’t find a house and nice fields waiting for you! What do you do when you get there?

At the beginning of the book, there is a timeline of the pioneers. It begins with Lewis & Clark’s expedition and ends with the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. There is also a map that shows the routes people traveled to reach Oregon. At the end of the book is a helpful glossary of terms used in the book, and more history. You Wouldn’t Want to be an American Pioneer is a great supplement to a study of American history, and a fun book for any child who likes history.

No warnings!

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