I loved this book. I read it before I gave it to my daughter. It is a fictional family, but all the information is true to life. Interspersed with the story of the Robertsons, you can learn how to make your own cheese, dip a candle, or learn to tell the time from the sun.
This book will add to your library, and is a nice complement to Laura Ingalls Wilders books. Homeschooling familys will enjoy it, I know we did.

The Pioneer Sampler

The Pioneer Sampler is a fun and fascinating book. It tells about a pioneer family. Can Nekeek and Willy catch fish by hand? You'll find out. This is a fun book.
I'd give this book a five *...

Barbara Greenwood has written a wonderful book that is as much fun for adults to read to children as it is for the children to read themselves. She doesn't just 'tell' about the Robertson's, she 'shows', drawing the reader into their lives...a pleasant place to be. I especially love Granny's story about how she came to America,on a ship, from Scotland.

The book is beautifully illustrated...all the way through...by Heather Collins. The pictures are so well done that, even as an adult, I would like to step into the scene!

There are instructions for simple, fun activities such as growing a potato plant, dyeing fabric using an onion, or making a cardboard jumping jack; pioneer games that will even entertain today's children for hours such as shadow shapes or knucklebones; and recipes that are easy for children.

Reading this book to a child is a great 'stress releaver'...it's like a little escape from the treadmill of life!!!

My mom bought this one for me when I was about eight years old. I'm nineteen now and I still love it. :) The pictures are exquisite... awesome illustrations bring Shakespeare to life so much it will be familiar to even little kids years later. These pictures are really buried deep in my memory and I'm glad. :)

I checked this book out of the library...hoping the beautiful pictures would captivate my 3 and 5yr old and they would then listen to Shakespeare. It WORKED!!! So I knew it was worth purchasing. The book contains only small selections from Shakespeare's work...but a great way to introduce your child to the beauty of his words. Wonderful Illustrations!!!

I loved this book. I was so stuck on what to do for my HS research project, and then i read this book, and i was flooded with ideas. And suddenly i had all these ideas to pick and choose from, and has saved me A LOT of frustration since then. If i could give this book 6 stars, i would. It's absolutely perfect for any student to read through. Get it!

This wonderful book is a great addition to your study of Pioneer days! All of the activities can be used to reinforce the daily life of the Pioneer families. There are activities and instructions for hand sewing a doll and her clothing; making useful, everyday things such as punched tin lanterns from tin cans and votive candles; or even molded candles. This is a great book for those hands on activities you need for history. It would even be good for studying the lives of children throughout history.

The Last Safe House is a fictional story with non-fiction stories in it. It tells about people in slavery during the mid eighteen hundreds. I recommend this book for kids 7 years old and up. They will enjoy the excitement of the story while learning about all the great African-Americans. I would give this book a four and a quarter stars. I think that you will have a good time with this book.

Wow, does it make for persuasive argument if I just say this book is good? No, but Barbara Greenwood's "The Last Safe House"" is a must for anyone interested in the topics of slavery, underground railroad or 19th century history, (America or Canada).

What makes this book so special is that it is so much more that just a young adult novel. Yes, there is a fictional story being told here, but mixed into the fictional story are non-fictional side bar stories. So for example when the story starts to tell of a nefarious slave catcher, the author stops the fiction and starts giving us a real background of slave catchers and how they operated. Basically the footnotes for her story become part of the story. And believe me it is not distracting at all. It's almost like Barbara Greenwood is sitting us next to a fire and telling us the story and pausing every once in a while to more fully explain some things.

I also loved Heather Collins's illustrations. We are not talking the fine art you occasionally see in juvenile books, but we are talking very functional drawings that not only add to the story but to our general understanding. I would love to have a poster size picture of her drawing of "A Cotton Plantation."

In addition to the great design of this book, there are some story details that are often skipped over in many other similar type books. First off, she tell the story that slaves were still not completely free even if they made it to Canada. Also while Canada may have been the land of the free, it was not completely free of prejudice.

I collect books about the underground railroad as a hobby. And Barbara Greenwood's "The Last Safe House will be one of my most recommenced reads.

Snip, snap, snout, my tale is told out . . . . :-)

The Last Safe House is a blend of good research, good writing, enjoyable illustrations and activities to make the subject come alive for children. Greenwood spins a simple central tale of an escaped slave family and one of the families who helps them reach freedom, and uses this story as a springboard to a larger picture - the history of black slaves in America, the hero(ines) of the Underground Railroad, the whole question of justice and prejudice. Greenwood does not sugar-coat the issues or her characters - her protagonists are real children, who sulk, bicker and wish to be popular just like children do in every age. There's also a delightful lack of smugness about the presentation - this isn't a 'look at the wonderful white family helping out the poor black refugees' story, or even a 'look at the wonderful Canadians saving people from the terrible Americans' story - it's a book that examines a huge and complex issue in childsize pieces, in a sensitive yet sensible manner.

In my opinion, this book is award-winning material...it has solid worth, and the illustrations and activities combine with the adventure in the story to produce a captivating whole (for children and adults alike). Bravo to Greenwood and Collins!

A very good book. That will keep you interested. But at times it can be a bit melodramatic.