Araminta and her paint box are each going to make it to the west coast, but by different Routes, a map with key shows us each route. On the title page, Araminta is holding a decorated box and a paint brush. This intrigues the reader, further on we find out that Doctor Darling, his wife. Emilia and young daughter Araminta have decided to leave a thriving medical practice in Boston to take
a position as the first doctor in a California town, in 1847.

I feel this book though a picture book may really catch the interest of children at level far above the first grade. Additionally it shows the many different reason people head west during that time period.

You could have students decorate a paper sack as Arminta’s paint box was, and explain their reasoning. ( )

When Araminta's father, a doctor, gets a position in California, the family leaves their Boston home to travel west. Araminta gets a pretty paint box from her uncle when they are in PA, which she brings with her, but loses. The paint box passes from one person to another until it makes its journey west and arrives with a snakebitten prospector in her father's office, and she gets it back. ( )