The Long Way Westward: (I Can Read Book Series: Level 3)
- Book Review,
by Joan Sandin
From Publishers Weekly
This sequel to The Long Way to a New Land follows a Swedish family traveling west across America to homestead in Minnesota. Their journey is not an easy one: sometimes the cars in the emigrant train have no seats, and in Pittsburgh they have to spend the night on the station floor. But they arrive safely at their destination, happy to have left poverty and famine behind and eager to start afresh in their new land. Sandin's graceful text never condescends, and is perfectly suited (as are so many of the other fine I Can Read books) to the beginning reader. She is also a talented artist, and the story springs to life through her finely drawn pen-and-ink drawings, washed with watercolors. From the clatter and bustle of New York City to the splendor of the rich Pennsylvania farmlands and a moonlit steamboat ride up the Mississippi River, Sandin vividly captures the flavor of an emigrant family's journey as seen through a child's eyes. A map is included. Ages 4-8. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 2-5-- With their parents, Carl Erik and his brother made their way from Sweden to America in Sandin's The Long Way to a New Land (Harper, 1981). Here the family moves from New York to a farm community in Minnesota. Historically accurate, the story chronicles a typical journey made by more than 50,000 Swedish emigrants in 1868 and 1869. Their perseverance is typified in this tale of four immigrants traveling westward in America at that time. The illustrations, well-executed black-line drawings washed with color, do much to establish the mood and setting. The dominant gray of the train scenes conveys the dismal nature of those accommodations while the Minnesota countryside seems washed in sunlight. This is a story that will attract competent primary - grade readers and will be equally suitable for less-able readers in the intermediate grades, especially those studying the United States and its immigration. --Sharron McElmeel, Cedar Rapids Community Schools, IACopyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
This lively sequel to The Long Way to a New Land follows the fortunes of Carl Erik’s family from New York City to the farmlands of Minnesota. "Historically accurate; will attract competent primary-grade readers and will be equally suitable for less able readers in intermediate grades." —SLJ. 1990 The USA Through Children's Books (ALA)Children's Books of 1989 (Library of Congress)1989 Children's Books (NY Public Library)
Card catalog description
Relates the experiences of two young brothers and their family, immigrants from Sweden, from their arrival in New York through the journey to their new home in Minnesota.
About the Author
Elaine Marie Alphin, author of The Ghost Cadet and The Proving Ground, drew the inspiration for A Bear for Miguel from letters written by her grandmother in El Salvador. Ms. Alphin lives in Madison, IN. Joan Sandin is the illustrator of many books for young readers, including the I Can Read books Small Wolf, written by Nathaniel Benchley, Snowshoe Thompson, written by Nancy Smiler Levinson, and her own The Long Way Westward and The Long Way to a New Land. Ms. Sandin lives in Tucson, AZ.
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