Get Along, Little Dogies: The Chisholm Trail Diary of Hallie Lou Wells

This book is wonderfully written and well researched (many of the locales are familiar to me as an Austin resident). It has all the elements of a great story -- adventure, danger, intrigue, romance -- while remaining realistic and wholesome. My 9-year-old daughter has already read it twice!

Fourteen-year-old Hallie Lou Wells is the daughter of a wealthy rancher in South Texas in 1878. At their mother's insistence, Hallie and her little sister are learning to be proper young ladies. But they are also learning how to run the ranch someday. When her father decides not to go on the annual cattle drive so that he can stay home with his pregnant wife, Hallie persuades him to let her go in his place, along with her servant and best friend, Dovey Mae. Along the trail, the two girls face the dangers of rattlesnakes, storms, river crossing, hostile Indians, outlaws, and illness. But Hallie becomes a braver, stronger person, and even experiences the joy of love. Told through the form of a diary kept by Hallie, this book was very similar to the Dear America series, and I would reccomend it to all fans of that series.