The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (edit title/settings)

• Rated 4 stars

“13 year old Jaimie McPheeters and his physician father leave Kentucky for the California gold fields in 1849. This 1959 Pulitzer Prize winner is a wonderful tale, full of adventure, romance, comedy and tragedy. Young Jaimie tells this story in a Mark Twain "Huck Finn" type of narrative. It is rich in language, wonderful characters and realism.”

• Rated 3 stars

“While not a book I would have selected to read, I am glad this was a book club choice (The last of our prize winners for awhile). I learned a lot about what it was like for the people crossing the US in 1848 - 1851 to find gold. Can't begin to imagine their fortitude. I skimmed a few parts ... long book. Loved the sections about the Mormons!”

• Rated 4 stars

“this book is for people who like long books. I read it when I was in my teens & read it again . It was a coming of age book for Jamie. I enjoyed it both times. ”

• Rated 5 stars

“I just finished a second reading of The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, as always a little afraid that I wouldn't like it as well as I remembered. The novel begins this way: "On the day when I first learned of my father's journey, I had come back with two companions from a satisfactory afternoon in the weeds near Kay's Bell Foundry, shooting a slingshot at the new bells, which were lying out in the year and strung up on rafters." Jaimie narrates the story, and the journey is as much his as his father's. Soon enough the shooting that happens is with guns, not slingshots. This rambling odyssey of a story covers a year in the life of Jaimie and his father, who leave Louisville to escape debt and find fortune in California. The adventure of crossing the country by wagon train is filled by turns with humor and horror. The author includes an extensive bibliography of work he used for research, including many narratives of travelers on the Oregon Trail. I had the feeling that descriptions of privation, Indian attacks, experiences with the Mormons, all had their basis in the true experiences of others. It is an interesting book, with likable characters, history, adventure, and danger. I'm not sure I'd recommend it for young readers, not only because it runs more than 500 pages, but because of the occasional gut-wrenching violence. Travel across the prairies, mountains and deserts of America in the 1860s was not for the faint of heart. Still, I found myself impatient each day to return to the story, anxious to see what became of the wanderers, and whether or not they ever found home. It was every bit as good as I remembered.”

• Rated 5 stars

“best book a 13-year-old boy can read.”

• Rated 5 stars

“Part of the Pulitzer series, and easily one of the most entertaining novels I've ever read. I laughed outloud many times, and learned sooooo much about the adventures awaiting those who naively left their cushy homes and headed to California to find gold in 1849! I can't recommend this one strongly enough. It's like learning history the fun way...real history...even the French and the Brits got in on it, and did the Native Americans ever enjoy the show!”

• Rated 3 stars

“This is a story about Jaimie McPheeters journey, to be part of the gold rush in California. As they travel west to California, everything that could possibly go wrong does go wrong. It's a bit of a slower read, but adventurous at the same time.”

• Rated 5 stars

“The description of the plot of this book falls far short of what it is really about. It covers so many wonderful (and terrible) characters and circumstances, all seen through the eyes of Jaimie and, at times, through his father's letters and journals. Jaimie starts the journey with his father, who is a dreamer, as a mischievous, but innocent youngster. The ordeals he faces and survives, funny, sad and horrendous, bring him into manhood with not only a firm understanding of his father, but of himself. I will add this to my short list of "great" books.”

• Rated 4 stars

“read this as a young boy and loved the tv show. have been looking for it most of my adult life. It was a dance in the aisles day when I walked into Value Village and there was a perfect hardback copy on the shelf.”