2.5stars. Listed as geared towards grades 5-8. I can't imagine that anyone in that age group would find this entertaining. I love Robert Louis Stevenson's collection of poetry, _A Child's Garden of Verses_. So, I appreciated learning a little more about him. ( )

This book is about man named Robert, He heard word that the woman he loved was terribly ill. She lived in California. He dropped everything in order to be with her. He used what money he had to get to her. He took a trainhe shared the experiences and hardships of the many poor Europeans onboard who were emigrating to the United States in search of a better life. This is a book for 5-7th grade when we are talking about emigration and the hardships of they journeys. ( )

This story shows how an Imigrant starts a long journey to get to be to the woman he loves. Robert Louis Stevenson cooses the cheapest method to get from Scotland to California. all this trip he was able to meet were emigrants who were hoping to settle in America. In this extensive trip of more than 3000 miles . He encounters people that are rude and others friendly.
the most amazing thing is how he describes every place he encounters also supported by pictures of the time. ( )

This book was a little depressing for me. While looking at the pictures and reading the story all I could think about was poverty and despair. The book was informational and I did learn a bit from it, but it would be like me learning about a war from someone who just got out of the battlefield and hadn't washed up yet.

This book tells the story of Robert Louis Stevenson and his twelve day journey from New York to California in 1879. Along with his story, you learn about the history of the building of the transcontinental railroad and the settling of the West. Children will learn about history as his book talks about the destruction of Native American life, the development of the Pullman car, and the towns that quickly came and vanished as the construction crews moved on. Murphy also includes a lot of pictures in the text that help keep children interested. ( )