School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-Missionary Narcissa Whitman was one of the first American women to journey to Oregon. Her story is interwoven with background about American exploration, the Northwest fur trade, and the burgeoning American settlement that brought the Oregon Territory into the United States. Varied black-and-white illustrations include maps, time lines, and drawings. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
Thorough, informative, and chatty, these biographies bring readers the background of the events covered, along with a sense of immediacy as we're thrust into the perils of the Oregon Trail or into the Plymouth Colony wilderness. Extensive timelines on each page are useful, although slightly distracting. Illustrations are comprehensive, despite some details being muddy. Whitman has a chronology. Reading list. Bib., ind. [Review covers these titles: The Adventurous Life of Myles Standish and the Amazing-But-True Survival Story of the Plymouth Colony and The Tragic Tale of Narcissa Whitman and a Faithful History of the Oregon Trail.] (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
This offering from the Cheryl Harness Histories series for middle-graders, which includes The Adventurous Life of Myles Standish0 (2006), introduces a nineteenth-century pioneer and missionary. Born in 1808, Narcissa had a strict religious upbringing that made her dream of bringing Christianity to those who lived in far-off places. Her 1836 marriage to Marcus Whitman helped her toward her goal. The couple journeyed along the Oregon Trail to the Waiilatpu Mission, where they ministered to the Cayuse. Unfortunately, their religious zeal did not include much understanding of local culture, and the Whitmans lost their lives in a massacre. Harness' chatty, conversational style makes the pair accessible to modern readers, and frequent quotes from Narcissa's diaries and letters and a time line help to frame the story in light of world and national events. Harness' black-line illustrations, which include captioned maps, double-page-spread insets, and period-style drawings, help to break up the text for younger readers. The lack of color is unfortunate, but this is, nonetheless, a lively account that will be a good addition to history units. --Kay Weisman Copyright 2006 Booklist
