She challenges him to contribute his own stories, in which he gradually reveals his identity as son of a wealthy magistrate. When mysterious Madame Chang arrives at the inn, her storytelling transports Rendi. He wonders about the innkeeper’s son who’s disappeared and about peculiar old Mr. The innkeeper’s bossy daughter irritates Rendi. Bad-tempered and insolent, Rendi hates Clear Sky, but he has no way of leaving the sad village where every night the sky moans and the moon has vanished. When a troubled runaway arrives in an isolated Chinese village where the moon has disappeared, he initiates a quest to find the missing orb and resolve his past.Įscaping from home in a merchant’s cart, Rendi’s abandoned in the Village of Clear Sky, where the innkeeper hires him as chore boy. Gregory brings a sobering dose of reality to an era that's often romanticized this is a fine glimpse of history on a human scale. Through Hattie's diary, Gregory brings the rigors of the trip to life, but she also includes the details that kept the settlers going-the friendships and camaraderie that developed and the joyful events (a wedding and some births) that occurred. Continue they do: Eight months after they set out, the remaining wagons arrive in Oregon City, just in time for Christmas. The Campbells lose neighbors and friends until they almost believe they cannot bear to continue. They cross the prairies, hastening the journey as news of the fate of the Donner party reaches them, but death, disease, weather, and the terrain take a terrible toll.

At first the adventure is exciting, but as the days, weeks, and months pass, Hattie realizes what a dangerous and tedious trip it will be. In a work subtitled ``The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell,'' Gregory (Earthquake at Dawn, 1992, etc.) reconvenes the Dear America series in 1847, as Hattie, her parents, and her two younger brothers begin the long trek from Missouri to Oregon by wagon train.

Earthquake at Dawn by Kristiana Gregory