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All We Left Behind: Virginia Reed and the Donner Party
All We Left Behind Virginia Reed and the Donner Party Author:Nancy Herman In 1846 the Reed and Donner families leave Illinois on a 2,000-mile journey to California in search of free land and a healthy climate. Thirteen-year-old Virginia Reed is thrilled to ride ahead of the wagons each day beside her adored father. But enthusiasm turns to alarm when her father and other party leaders make decisions that put the famil... more »ies dangerously behind schedule. Provisions dwindle. Hardships mount. Anger erupts. In a frantic effort to reach California before winter, the Donner Party takes an untried shortcut, with heartbreaking results. As hardships and losses mount on the trail, Virginia acknowledges the fallibility of the adults in her life and begins to rely on her own judgment. When the party becomes trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains by early snows, she must find the courage to defy her father in order to save the rest of her family. Of all American pioneer stories, the Donner Party?s is the most tragic. Eighty-seven ordinary people dreaming of new lives made a series of bad decisions and encountered a run of bad luck, resulting in their winter entrapment. All We Left Behind: Virginia Reed and the Donner Party takes the reader on Virginia?s emotional journey as she evolves from an obedient daughter to an independent young woman during the crossing.« less