The Tucket Adventures Series

Review By Nathan:
Francis Tucket is a teenage boy who is moving out west with his family.  On his 14th birthday, he is given a rifle and goes behind the wagon train to practice, but he gets too far behind and is kidnapped by Indians.  Thus starts the adventures of Tucket's life. 
              First in the Indian camp he meets a one armed man named Mr. Grimes who helps him escape the Indians.  Francis travels with Mr. Grimes for a while and learned a lot about how to survive in the west, but they eventually part ways.  Their paths will cross several more times.
              In the mean time, Tucket finds talkative Lottie and her brother Billy alone on the prairie.  He takes them in and starts towards Oregon in the hope of finding his family.  Along the way they end up getting involved in the American-Mexican War, get captured by bandits and find a mother-load of gold.  Eventually Mr. Grimes is killed and this effects Tucket deeply.  After a little while, he continues along his way to Oregon.  At the end of the book series, Tucket finds his family, marries Lottie and "lives happily ever after."

            I enjoy reading about the Wild West and I like the adventure in these books.

Note to Parents:
This book contains some bad language, violence (Tucket himself killed several people over the series) and Mr. Grime's death left Tucket depressed for a while until Mr. Grimes "showed up" and told him it was OK (Mr. Grimes death can also be a sad moment for the reader.)

Age Range:10 to 14  Book Category: Historical Fiction/Fiction

Another I read by Gary Paulson  Woodsong

Please feel free to leave a comment to tell what you thought of the review, the book or to suggest something for us to read and review.

The Good Master

Review by Nathan:
This book tells the story of a boy named Jancsi who is the son of a rancher in Hungary.  Jancsi has never gone further than the nearby village so he is very excited when his cousin, Kate, comes from the city.  But he is not prepared for his headstrong cousin.  This book tells about Kate's change from liking city life to loving country life and all the adventures that come along with it, from roundups to gypsies.

I enjoyed this book, especially when Kate came to like country life since I live in the country.

Age Range:  11+   Book Category: Fiction

The Night of the Full Moon

Review by Nathan:
This book tells the story of a girl in 1840 Great Lakes area named Libby.  She is friends with an Indian girl named Fawn.  One day Libby sneaks away to the Indian camp when they are having a celebration.  While she is there, soldiers come and force the Indians to leave and head west.  With the help of the tribe chief, Libby manages to get back home.

This short book is a perfect book for younger readers.  It was a quick read for me.

Age Range: 7-8 to 11   Book Category:  Historical Fiction

Kavik The Wolf Dog

Review by Nathan:

Andy lives in a remote village in Alaska and keeps a trap line.  One day when he is on the line, he runs across the plane wreck of Smiley who had been transporting the winning lead dog of the North American Dog Sled Race.  The dog named Kavik is found by Andy near the crash, still alive but barely.  He struggles to get Kavik home and even then people don't think he'll live.  Kavik makes a full physical recovery and his owner wants him back.  The owner, Mr. Hunter, takes him back down South but Kavik escapes and starts working his way up to Andy's village.  Will he survive the journey and if so will Mr. Hunter take him again?

I like Alaska and much of this book takes place in Alaska so I enjoyed it very much.

Age Range: 11+ (remember this is only a recommended age range)  Book Category:  Fiction

The Wolfling

Review By Nathan:

Robbie really wants a wolf pup to raise for his own, but there are some problems. He'd have to get the pup in the first place before someone kills it for a bounty plus his father is a farmer and a wolf could kill livestock.  He finally gets a wolf pup who he names "Wolf".  But the question is can Robbie train Wolf to stay out of trouble and will Wolf runaway someday?  And how is Inga, Robbie's good friend, tie in to this all?  Join Robbie and his 1870's town in their adventures.

I like to read about wolves and this time period in history so I very much enjoyed this book.

Note to parents:

Inga's father drowned so Inga's mother is very worried Inga will die young and causes Inga to have somewhat of the same opinion.  Also Inga and Robbie kiss.

Age Range 12+   Book Category:   Historical Fiction

The Boy Who Dared

Review By Nathan:

This book is based on a true story and takes place during the Nazi regime.  It tells the story of  a German boy named Helmuth and his Mormon family.  Helmuth is the average teenage school boy until Hitler takes over the government.  He starts to realize that Hitler's regime tells lies to get the people to follow them.  He eventually decides to do something about it.. He secretly starts to write, type and distribute leaflets that point out Hitler's flaws.  When someone turns him in to the Gastopo, he is arrested and convicted.  Even though he is still a minor, he is sentenced to death.  This book goes between him on death row and his life before he is arrested.  

Note to Parents:  This book obviously takes place in Nazi Germany and mentions some of the cruelty that took place.   As I also mentioned, Helmuth was on death row and it describes prison life.  Please read more before having your child read this book.

Age Range: 13-15+   Book Category:Historical Fiction

See this Christian Site:   https://www.pluggedin.com/book-reviews/boy-who-dared/

The Ballad of Lucy Whipple

Review by Nathan:

California Whipple and her siblings follow their mother as she fulfills her dream to move out to California during the gold rush of 1849.  California (the girl) does not like being hauled out from Massachusetts to this barren land and being named after it.  On the top of her list of complaints is that there is no "lending library" which she hopes to remedy. She eventually gets used to the way of life but still wants to go back east.  She also changes her name to Lucy with some trouble from her family.  This book tells of her adventures and challenges from runaway slaves, to her brother's death and the entire town of Lucky Diggins burning.

I enjoyed reading this book especially since I like books set in the West during this period. In this book, Lucy was not the most respectful to her mother or always truthful.  Also, be sensitive to the language and lifestyle of the miners portrayed in this book.  

Age Range 12-18  Book Category: Historic Fiction

Another I read by Karen Kushman

The Midwifes Apprentice

A Gathering of Days

Review By Nathan:

             This book tells the story of a girl named Catherine in 19th century New England

 over several years.  This book, written in diary format, tells of Catherine and her family's hardships growing up without her mother in the country from the hard winters and strict school teachers to her best friend's death.  Eventually her father remarries and she faces the trouble that comes with a step mother.  At the end of the book Catherine goes to live with far away friends to help with their baby-leaving the reader to make up the rest of the story.

             This book gives you a peak into the life of people in the early 1800's which I enjoyed.

Age Range: 11-18  Book Category: Historical Fiction

Woodsong

Review By Nathan:

Woodsong tells the story of famous writer Gary Paulsen and his adventures with dogs and dog sledding.  It starts when he first gets a dog team to run a trap line. It tells of the lessons he has learned from dogs and what he has seen while sledding.  The book ends with the famous dogsled race, the Iditarod in Alaska which he finishes (a lot of racers do not.)

Note:

Sometimes when Paulsen is out sledding alone he starts to hallucinate due to severe conditions.

Age Range 13+ (Note this is only a recommended range-use your own judgment)

Book Category: True Story

The Bear-Originally Published as The Grizzly King

Review By Nathan:

This book by James Oliver Curwood is set in the Rocky Mountains of Canada.  It tells the story of Thor, a giant grizzly bear who makes these mountains his home.  It also tells us about two men named Bruce (the pro. hunter) and Jim (the naturalist) who invade Thor's kingdom and after seeing him they decide to hunt the magnificent Thor.  At this time Muskwa, a black bear cub who has just lost his mother is found by Thor and is taken under his "wing". 

               The hunters soon set dogs on Thor's trail and Muskwa is separated from the giant beast and captured by the hunters.  Thor escapes and they continue to hunt him while taming Muskwa.  At one point Jim is out for a walk and breaks his rifle.  Not long after this Thor finds him but leaves him be even though he could have easily killed his "enemy".  This changes Jim's outlook and the hunters move on leaving Muskwa.

Age Range:11+    Book Category: Historical Fiction

See also: This book by the same author Kazan