Apples to Oregon

Extended Title: Apples to Oregon: Being the (Slightly) True Narrative of How a Brave Pioneer Father Brought Apples, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Grapes, and Cherries (and Children) Across the Plains
Author: Deborah Hopkinson
Illustrator: Nancy Carpenter
Year: 2004
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Pages: 40
Reading Level: Beginning Reader (ages 4-8)

Awards: 2005 ALA Notable Book, 2004 Golden Kite Award

Genre: Picture Book, Historical Fiction/Tall Tale/Western
Location: Oregon Trail
Time Period: Early 1800s

Plot: A tall tale based loosely on the life of Henderson Luelling, this book describes what it might have been like on the trail when a farmer from Iowa tries to bring not only his family across the prairie to Oregon, but also hundreds of fruit trees and vines as well. The family encounters adventures such as crossing the Platte and Columbia Rivers, dust storms, droughts, dangerous mountain passes, and the oncoming threat of winter.

Comments: Hopkinson writes in an amusing, singsong tone that sounds just like someone telling a western tall tale. Although this is the story of Henderson Luelling, children will like the fact that it is the main character, Delicious, who saves the trees again and again. Carpenter's oil paintings are fun and bright and golden, matching the tone of Hopkinson's tall tale. The end of the book includes a note about the source of the tale, describing who Henderson Luelling really was and giving a little bit of the history of what it takes to grow apples. Children can learn something with this book without feeling like the information is being crammed down their throats.

Themes: Crossing the Plains, Pioneers, Fruit, Apples, Henderson Luelling

Red Flags: A mighty dust storm requires all of the children to take off their clothes and drape them over the fruit trees, other slight instances of peril