num_pages: 285
description: Ellen Boone was sixteen, a grown woman by the standards of 1852. On her family's long trek in the wagon train from the Missouri River country to California, she did a woman's work and took a woman's responsibilities.But she still was not allowed to wear her hair pinned up in puffs and coils like the other girls of her age. Especially when Jed, the handsome South Pass Scout, showed signs of interest in her. Ellen chafed against her parents' unwillingness to have her grow up.But grow up she did--in character as well as appearance--during the long, exhausting, exciting journey across the continent. She learned the value of patience, gentleness, and good temper as she cared for her five brothers and sisters when their father and mother were both ill. Courage and endurance became her dependable supports through days of fatigue and nights of anxiety. And best of all, she found at the end of the great adventure that true love is worth earning and worth waiting for.Here is a story of covered wagons-days so vividly told that every detail of event and character is a living experience to the reader. The Boones are a family who will remain long in the memory, every one of them a real individual, and all united in purpose and affection. How they turned a favorite family pastime into a solid means of livelihood when their hope failed of "striking it rich" in the California gold mines makes an original and delightful climax to a fine, robust book.
language: English
title: The Singing Boones
titlecomplete: The Singing Boones
genres: Historical Fiction, Historical, Young Adult
ratings_count: 25
publisher: Viking Children's Books