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Kids Book Lists: Trails West

A selection of titles from our featured book list. Click on the book list title for the whole list.

Wagon Train: A Family Goes West in 1865

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By Courtni C. Wright

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"Wright details the experiences and hardships faced by Ginny, a young African American girl, and her family as they travel west from Virginia to California in 1865. Unwelcome on the big wagon trains departing from Independence, Missouri, Ginny's family must form its own group of newly freed friends and relatives. They endure snakebites, drought, broken wagon wheels, extreme temperatures, and treacherous mountains before finally reaching California. In keeping with the picture-book format, Wright includes no maps and mentions no famous landmarks, concentrating instead on a few episodes in the fictional journey."--Booklist

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West by Covered Wagon: Retracing the Pioneer Trails

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By Dorothy Hinshaw Patent

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"A modern-day wagon train journey is interwoven with fascinating facts about the harsh realities of a wagon train passage across the prairie one hundred years ago."
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The Pony Express

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By Laurel van der Linde

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"Surveys the history of the Pony express, from its creation at the time of the Gold Rush to its demise at the start of the Civil War. Includes profiles of famous riders. "
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Buffalo Gals: Women of the Old West

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By Brandon Marie Miller

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"Seeking religious freedom, economic prosperity, or 'elbow room,' thousands of women emigrated to the American West between the 1830s and the 1890s. They traveled alone or with their families by railroad, wagon train, and even on foot. Miller brings these pioneers' stories to life through quotations from diaries, letters, and vintage travel guides. Equally dramatic are the sepia-toned photographs that appear on nearly every page, the most delightful of which is a picture of two daredevils in long skirts cavorting on a rock formation in Yosemite Valley. While this title covers much of the same information as Judith Alter's Women of the Old West (Watts, 1989), it is livelier and gives more equitable coverage of African American pioneers, Native Americans, and Mexican Americans. Buffalo Gals will appeal to fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books, and to any student with a hankering for a good read. Yeeeee-ha!"--Rebecca O'Connell, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh for School Library Journal

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