I know many people enjoyed this book, but it is just not for me. I tried to read this book but never got past the third chapter! If I could, I would change many things about this book. First of all, lets get a little more action in here! I wish Kathleen Duey would start the action a little closer to the beginning of this book. It's a pain just trying to get to the good part! Also, if she really has to start the action so close to the end of the book, can't she make the beginning of this book a little more interesting? The rest of the American Diaries books are much better than this one. At least the beginning of all the other ones are interesting!

I give this book four and a half stars.I give it four and a half stars because Anisett Lundberg is about a girl who's father had died.She lives with her mother and her brother Colin.Every morning she has to wake up before the sun comes out.Her brother gets to sleep later.She has to get up to help her mother make dinners for camps of miners.That day she has to get meat for stew.She gets the pails for stew.Then she goes upstairs to make the stew.After she made the stew she helped her mother make biscuits and gravy.After that she put new lunch pails around the table for the miners.Today they need about 90 pails.Then they filled the pails with biscuits and gravy and stew. Her mother told to go hitch the mule when she woke up Colin and got him ready.They og to the first camp and they meet a blonde man who is really mean They go to the second camp and they meet a guy whos name is Toby.They go to the third camp and Toby caomes with them because his uncles work there.They sold all there pails then they went home and Toby was riding home on his horse with them and the blonde man came.He kidnapps them. The moms friend Yen comes by and she waves at him.Then the blonde man has the mom bring them to her cabin to find gold.I will not tell you any more but if you want to find out what happens read Anisett Lundberg.

Twelve-year-old Anisett's father died on the long journey by wagon train west to California. Now her mother provides for Anisett and her little brother by selling food to the miners. When Anisett finds a chunk of gold in the stream behind their little cabin, she knows this discovery could end the hardship of her family's life. When a desperate, gold-hungry miner learns of Anisett's discovery, he takes Anisett and her family hostage and threatens to kill them if they don't reveal where they found the gold. Anisett put her family in danger - now she has to save them. This was an exciting historical novel that I highly reccomend.

It was that boring! I usually don't even give up on books, but this one was an exception. Ellen was one of those classic tomboys who just wants to like her daddy and grandpa. How original is that. She just happens to also live on a ranch where she just acts like the real cowboy. Wow. I'm not saying that Ellen couldn't be that way, but she could of been less one-dimensional (just like many of the other characters in SURVIVAL! and American Diaries, the latter not as much). Her Grandpa gets hurt so she has to think up some crazy plan using all these ranch equipment pieces that people from the nineties could really care less about. The description where she was trying to move her grandpa (about five million chapters long) drove me so crazy I just had to stop. Try reading one of the first American Diaries books, they have more on the character of the person and less historical mumbo jumbo (and don't get me wrong, I love history!)

Living in Texas in the 1880s, motherless twelve-year-old Ellen longs to be a rancher, but her father discourages her because she is a girl. Ellen herself is a dissapointment to her father - he wishes for a son that can help him out more around the ranch. When her father goes away during a drought, Ellen's first true challenge comes. The windmill is broken, the valuable herd is scattered, and her grandfather is injured. Ellen must find the stock, bring them to water, and help her grandfather. Can she accomplish all these tasks and make her father proud of her? A good historical novel with a strong main character.

Ellen is a 12 year old girl growing up on a ranch in Texas. Her Father is gone and her Grandpa is hurt. Everything seems to be going wrong, the windmill is broken and the herd is thirsty. But that doesn't stop Ellen! She proves herself a true rancher by saving the day!

This book is definately a page turner: I read it in 3 hours. The author does a really good job describing the feelings of both characters. You really feel like you're there. Definately reccomended for 4-8th graders.

Brendan O'Conner and Li Dai Yue are both twelve-year-old orphans living in 1906 San Francisco, unhappy with the circumstances of their lives but able to do little or nothing to change them. But the similarities end there. Brendan is Irish and works as a delivery boy, dreaming of rising from the poverty that he lives in. Dai Yue is a Chinese immigrant whose uncle has arranged for her to marry a much older man. The morning of the terrible earthquake, they are thrown together by fate. Now they must overcome their staggering cultural differences if they are to survive the disaster around them. This was a story not only about surviving a disaster but about the friendship between two children who come from very different worlds. Highly reccomend if you enjoy disaster and historical stories.

Having lived through several scary earthquakes, I can vouch for the fact that Brendan and Li DaiYue's responses to the San Francisco earthquake are right on target. But by cooperating, they keep their heads and triumph against the odds. Survival is a great series.

It was sickening, the amount of details used in this short book. I have three words that explain my opinion on all of that unnecessary junk... I DON'T CARE! I don't care how exactly their water looked or how exactly the pioneers stored their food. I just want to know about Willow and her quest to survive. That's why I bought the book for goodness sakes! Not to read a textbook on pioneer life! If the author is so obsessed with putting those details in, the least she could do is put them in in an interesting way. I know these books are supposed to take place in just one day, but one day just doens't work for the Oregon Trail. The only thing I liked was that Willow was a pretty good character in that she was terrified of the river for a reason and in her feelings about her stepfather. But, I mean, where was the stinking survival in the book? WHERE?

Ever since her father drowned crossing a river the first time her family attempted to head west, twelve-year-old Willow has been terrified of water. And ever since her mother remarried and and the family headed west again, she has resented her new stepfather, Mr. Hansen. But nothing can prepare Willow for the challenges she will face in one short day. Swept out of the wagon during a river crossing, Willow is left for dead. Now she must make her way through a harsh, merciless wilderness in an attempt to find her family before they get to far ahead for her to ever catch up. This was an excellant survival story, and Willow was a well-developed character, especially considering how short this book was.

This was another great book in the American Diaries series. Willow's father was drowned the first time her family tried to head west. Now, Willow's mother has remarried, and once again the family is headed west. But when the wagon train crosses a river, Willow falls out of the wagon and must survive and search for her family. Read this book!

Double-Yuck Magic was not a horrible book, but it definately could have been better. I realize it was written for elementary school kids, but even for that, it's not that great of a book. It has a nice story that shows a young girl discovering her magical abilities, and making mistakes along the way. In that regards it is better than most because it shows what happens when you abuse something that you have. It is good in the way it portrays Mathilda's desire for a dog.