Ten Mile Day: And the Building of the Transcontinental Railroad

by Mary Ann Fraser

Overview

On May 10, 1869, the final spike in North America's first transcontinental railroad was driven home at Promontory Summit, Utah. Illustrated with the author's carefully researched, evocative paintings, here is a great adventure story in the history of the American West—the day Charles Crocker staked $10,000 on the crews' ability to lay a world record ten miles of track in a single, Ten Mile Day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780805047035
Publisher:	Square Fish
Publication date:	03/15/1996
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	240,451
Product dimensions:	7.99(w) x 10.09(h) x 0.17(d)
Lexile:	1060L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Mary Ann Fraser has illustrated more than forty books for children, and is the author-illustrator of a growing list of popular middle-grade books that focus on U.S. history. Her In Search of the Grand Canyon was voted a Best Book of the Year by School Library Journal and Ten Mile Day was an American Bookseller Pick, of the Lists. A graduate of Exter College of Art Design, she lives with her husband and three children in Simi Valley, California.

Editorial Reviews

In her well-researched text, Fraser incorporates fascinating detail...while honestly addressing the prejudice faced by Chinese laborers. Good use of the broad picture-book format. An attractive resource.” —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Gr 4-6-- The day that 10 miles of railroad track were laid on the Union Pacific end of the transcontinental railroad was indeed a remarkable one for laborers, suppliers, and organizers. It was never duplicated. Other historians mention this achievement, but Fraser captures the action in brilliantly rendered oils. Her laborers look like workers--not just men standing around. In a few useful sidebars and in informative endpapers, she adds details that enlarge upon and enhance the text. For the full history of 19th-century railroad building--with its problems, politics, people--read Leonard Everett Fisher's Tracks Across America (Holiday, 1992). But Ten Mile Day is in a class by itself. It is a picture-book slice of American history that should pique readers' interest. --George Gleason, Department of English, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield

School Library Journal