Your Life as a Private on the Lewis and Clark Expedition

by Jessica Gunderson, Colleen Madden (Illustrator)

Overview

You just tried out for the school play. And who wants the lead part more than anyone? YOU! Imagine setting off to sail crystal-clear rivers all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Going bird-watching. Sleeping beneath the stars. But be careful what you wish for. That might not be the way it was for a private on the Lewis and Clark expedition …

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781404877467
Publisher:	Capstone
Publication date:	07/01/2012
Series:	The Way It Was
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	7.70(w) x 9.80(h) x 0.10(d)
Lexile:	630L (what's this?)
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Jessica Gunderson grew up in the small town of Washburn, North Dakota. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Dakota and an MFA in Creative Writing from Minnesota State University, Mankato. She has written more than one hundred books for young readers. Her book President Lincoln’s Killer and the America He Left Behind won a 2018 Eureka! Nonfiction Children’s Book Silver Award. She currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

The fourth girl in a family of 8 children, Colleen Madden made it through childhood pretending to be a space princess with a wookie sidekick and drawing in her cardboard box art studio. Colleen spent some time acting and training at The Second City in Chicago, then went on to graduate from a small liberal arts school in Massachusetts, with a contract major in illustration and English literature. She is currently residing in the Philadelphia area, with her writer-husband, and their 2 sons. She has illustrated for many different kinds of clients and is the recipient of an International Greeting Card Louie Award. When not illustrating, Colleen can be found long distance running, making her boys giggle, and eating lots and lots of sushi.

Editorial Reviews

The year is 1804 and you’re Private George Shannon, a 17-year-old from Kentucky. Your mission? To join Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and “find a route to the Pacific Ocean, following the rivers as closely as possible.” Much cooler than simply reading about the Lewis and Clark Expedition, right? The titles in the Way It Was series offer role-playing (in the form of a school play) as an entry point to history. A narrator, who appears on most spreads, speaks directly to the reader, telling him or her how to feel (“you’re not scared”) and providing commentary as each crisis—mosquitoes! frostbite!—presents itself. Sidebars on each page supply the hard facts, while cartoonlike images reflect the playful tone of the main narration. Your Life as a Private on the Lewis and Clark Expedition means facing the brutal winter at Fort Mandan and coming face-to-face with grizzly bears. In Your Life as a Pharaoh in Ancient Egypt, kids become Pharaoh Nebibi, living in 2401 BCE, who needs to supervise the construction of a pyramid. From there, readers wend through life in ancient Egypt, encountering tomb robbers and war. While the cartoon illustrations can make the Native Americans and Egyptians look stereotypical at times, for the most part, they’re lively and engaging. A ton of fun and the closest kids can get (so far) to a time machine.

Booklist

A fascinating account that quickly draws the reader into the adventure. Kid-friendly with colorful illustrations, interesting information presented in short paragraphs and bubbles describing parts of the 8,000 mile journey that took 2 years and 4 months. Students doing in-depth reports will need more information but this will spark young readers' interest!

Ohio SWON Library Consortium