The Journal of Douglas Allen Deeds

With my fourth book I have yet again made another jump in the sub-series. The Journal of Douglas Allen Deeds is part of the My Name is America sub-series which consists of journals written in the young male perspective throughout different times in American history. This particular novel is a journal of a young boy, Douglas, of fifteen years old who has been orphaned by the unfortunate death of his parents and decides to move west to California like countless other emigrants.

With his inheritance and his horse he decides to join what has now come to be as The Donner Party, a wagon train that consisted of over 200 wagons when it first left Missouri. Soon the young boy is taken in by the Breen family after making friends with their son Edward. The start of the journey is filled with hope and amazing adventures. Little does anyone know that the adventure as pioneers that they started out on would become even more difficult than anyone imagined. Due to the decision to take a "shortcut" and thus get to California in a shorter time The Donner party finds themselves in several perilous predictiments.

I don't want to give anything away but if you can remember back to middle or high school history class you will understand why I was slightly distressed to pick up and get through this book. Overall, though I found the novel to be a very realistic portrayal of a fifeteen year old boy trying to make a life for himself and I think this novel could go along with history lessons about the Oregon Trail very well.

One of the most interesting features of the book is the map in the back which shows the reader the route that the Donner Party took on their way to California. I wish that I had discovered it sooner because I spent a lot of time trying to track the groups progress and figure out what state they were in based on the landscape and landmarks Douglas was referring to.

P.S. for those of you who remember the Donner Party do not fret about Douglas!

Here is more information on the book for those of you who are interested

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 158 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Inc.; 1st edition (November 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439216001
• ISBN-13: 978-0439216005