Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie: The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell, 1847

I loved this book!!! The diary of Hattie Campbell was on my “favorite” list of the Dear America books! I read it a couple times through, and than decided to buy it for myself after a few days!! Love it!!! Samantha

Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie is one of my favorite books, and definetely my favorite on the Oregon Trail! I first read this in 1997 when it came out, and I've read it many times since then. This book tells the story, in diary form, of 13 year old Hattie Campbell. It starts out in 1847, in Missouri, when her family decides to travel with a wagon train to Oregon. There are river crossings, friendships, Indian encounters, deaths, marriages, and poisonings throughout the trip, but Hattie overcomes the hardships and grows into a young women.This story tells history in a real and interesting way, and I would recommend it to almost all ages! If you liked this book, as I'm sure you will, you'd probably like the other books in the Dear America series, especially West to a Land of Plenty.

I first read this book in March 1997 when it first came out. Even after three and a half years, and the reading of many more books, this remains of my favorite books ever. It brings the Oregon Trail to life and puts faces on the countless brave pioneers who braved the hardships of the trail to make new lives in the west. The narrator is a fictional thirteen-year-old farm girl from Missouri, Hattie Campbell. Through her diary, written in a voice that truly sounds as if it belongs to a young girl from that time, the reader experiances the events of Hattie's journey west - her friendship with Pepper, a fourteen-year-old girl from the wagon train, the beginnings of a romance with Pepper's brother Wade, and many others. Hattie was a character that I really came to care about, and I was sad to put the book down when it was finished, but since then, I have read it several more times. Kristiana Gregory is an amazing author that has given a distinct voice to each of her narrators in this book and her two other Dear America books. I hope she writes another Dear America book soon; she's one of my favorite authors from the series. I highly reccomend this book to historical fiction fans.

I really was amazed by the way Hattie dealt with all the joys and tragedies of traveling to Oregon. This book is a good starter for people who are hesitant to read Dear America diaries.

This book was tragic But adventureous. I felt like I was Hattie. It is about a girl who leaves her hometown in Booneville, Missora and heads out west to Oregon. Their are a lot of deaths in the story but none of Hattie's family members died on the Oergon trail so don't worry. I'm eight and I didn't have nightmares for a week but if I were you I would not let anybody under eight read this. they may get scared. There are great characters like Pepper, Gideon, Wade, Ben, Jake and of course Hattie Campell. If you like adventure and danger I recomend this book to you.

I love dear america books, but this one is definantly my favorite. it gives a good picture of the hardships a pioneer on the oregan trail would have to experiance.in the book, Hattie and her parents leave their home to go west on the oregon trail. Hattie doesn't want to leave her best friend or the graves of her baby sisters. the diary tells all about the journey, her sorrows and her joys, her new friends and her new enemies. unlike in some of the dear america diaries, some of Hattie's dreams do come true. I would really recomend this book to anyone, but be prepared, this book is sad.