Hi my name is Jill and I read the book Sacajawea; Her True story by Joyce Milton.. The book was great. It is geared toward first through third grade reading levels, but it is a good read aloud for up to fourth grade. The pictures are very colorful and vivid and the text is simple and easy to understand. The book chronicles the important events of Sacajawea's life, beginning with her childhood. The book also includes maps and symbols that are helpful for additional understanding. I would recommend this book to all primary students who are learning about Sacajawea and/or Lewis and Clark.

Few people living today know that President Thomas Jefferson launched two expeditions into the Louisiana territory purchased in 1803; Lewis and Clark to the north, Freeman and Custis to the south. Lewis and Clark have been covered thoroughly, even triumphally, because they completed their task. Freeman and Curtis have been ignored because they were intercepted by Spanish soldiers after exploring hundreds of miles of the Red River. Historian Dan Flores, drawing on both American and Spanish sources, performs a real service by describing this southern expedition and placing it within the context of its time (1806). Flores reminds us that the Spanish tried to stop Lewis and Clark too, but missed them. He shows us that the scheming General Wilkinson wanted the Freeman and Custis expedition to provoke a war with Spain, and nearly succeeded. Flores provides an introduction before the expedition's own account, and an epilogue after. His annotation of the expedition's documents is exceptionally thorough and often fascinating. The book includes numerous black and white illustrations and reproductions of several old maps. A modern map of the area would have been helpful. This book is one of an excellent series published by the University of Oklahoma Press.

the book west to the pacific is about the history in the lewis and clark expedition.During thier journey they ran accross many obsticles along the way such as animals, indains , bears , buffalo and rivers to cross. for the idaians the presedent wanted peace so there would be good encounters with them so they gave them peace medals as they came across the tribes to show a sign of frendship so while hey were expoloring they thought they would be safe. the main caritors in the book were lewis and clark and also there dog scannon who saves them many times such as, the buffalo cam into the camp and the dog scared him away. this book is very good for facts if you stick to it you will enjoy it in the end

"The Journal of Augustus Pelletier: The Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804" was not a good addition to the "My Name Is America" series, and a disappointment for author Kathryn Lasky. I was looking forward to more history, but instead was shown a lot of scenery. After reading this book, I felt like I walked away only reading half of his diary. The beginning started out very good, but by the end, it was as if Lasky didn't know what to write anymore, and decided to stretch it out. The epilogue was also a disappointment. Not even good for beginner learners of this time in history. I do not recommend.

Wouldn't it be cool to get to name waterfalls? Well, that's mostly what they did in the Lewis and Clark expedition, besides having a young crewmember with a step dad that punished him by cutting off his ear!
This book is a great book. It's part of the Dear America series and has so much action! In this book they travel with a Navajo girl named Sacajawea who wishes to travel back to her homelands on the way and sure enough they stopped there, but Sacajewea couldn't go in! In the expedition they're traveling along the Mississippi river. Now here's the action packed summary of the story!
Traveling along the riverside going from Indian camp to Indian camp. Scavenging for food trying to hide. Gus a 14-year-old boy was keeping close to a kettle boat with Lewis and Clark aboard. He brought up the courage to expose himself to Lewis. Lewis didn't seem to care at all, he just told him to mark down the length and width of the river after Lewis measured it. When Lewis brought Gus aboard everyone was surprised. As Gus journeyed through to the shining sea he became a part of the permanent party - the party that travels to the shining sea.
I liked this book because it starts out with the main character avoiding being seen and trying to stay alive. There are some things that I didn't like though, for example, there was so much walking. I mean practically to whole book was walking. Another thing I didn't like was that some passages were confusing and I didn't understand. Besides that I would really recommend The Journal of Augustus Pelletier by Kathryn Lasky.

First of all, the entire "Dear America/My Name is America" series is based on historical journals from a fictional child. To critisize this book because Augustus did not exsist is unfounded. For the past three years, I have read this book aloud to my students to accompany our Lewis & Clark unit. Every class I have read Augustus to, love it! My students have never walked away confused about Lewis & Clark. I recommend Augustus to all children interested in Lewis & Clark!

I'm a historian who lives in Montana, and with so many stories about Sacagawea around, it's nice to find one that represents the facts and doesn't make generalizations and fanciful ideas about what might have been. Sacagawea didn't keep a diary, after all. That was done by Clark, so the documented information is limited and often biased. White's book gives a good feel for the terrain and pertinent information about the People of the Northern Plains, while it details the historical information and the incredible rigors of the trip. The bibliography offers good suggestions for further reading.

I thought this book was so well done. It's well researched and colorful. Kids and adults both should enjoy it....

In April of 1805 Lewis and Clark began what was to be a historic exploration of the westernmost part of the North American continent. With them went a 16-year-old Shoshone girl, recently a mother, named Sacajawea. Throughout the long and often difficult journey Sacajawea proved herself to be intelligent and courageous--as author White says, a vital member of the team. Alana White is scrupulous as a biographer, giving us the known facts of the country and the events of those days. Within that framework, her admiration for this young woman shines through. It is difficult for most young readers today even to imagine making such a laborious trek, without adding the problems of carrying along a newborn baby. Stoic, courageous, and level-headed, Sacajawea left no written record of her life. All that we know of her is what Merriwether Lewis recorded of her in his journals. It is no small achievement that White makes this remarkable young woman come alive in her book.

Though not necessarily an "easy read," I found this novel rich and rewarding, contrary to the experience of some reviewers here. Author Hall imaginatively recasts the amazing, nation-building "expedition of exploration" of Merriweather Lewis and William Clark. In an adventurous literary conceit, he weaves four voices through the narrative: co-captains Lewis and Clark, native American Sacagawea, and French Trader, Toussaint Charbonneau, finding a unique voice, eyes, and ears, for each guide along our journey. The least compelling, in my opinion, is Charbonneau; perhaps the most is Sacagawea, who probably deserved her own novel. Her passages are sometimes difficult to get through, with their lack of "Western" grammar, capitalized proper nouns, and strange punctuation, but they effectively give voice to the voiceless-despite Sacagawea's profile on the new, gold, one-dollar U.S. coin, little is truly known about her nor many other native Americans who figure in our history.
Lewis' and Clark's narrative voices are more straightforward, though no less compelling. Lewis is a tragic figure, who eventually commits suicide. Hall implies, though does not directly state, a latent homosexuality in Lewis, an unrequited love toward Clark that seems to go beyond the "brotherly" love of soldiers in arms. Clark is more confident and assured and seems to bind the voyage together. As I read the novel, I found myself on the voyage, alongside Hall's quartet, imagined much more effectively than any nonfiction account. It helps to be familiar with the story, as many of the voyage's details are left out or implied.
At the beginning of the bicentennial of this phenomenal voyage, "I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company" makes a great bookmark with Stephen Ambrose's classic nonfiction account, "Undaunted Courage."

THIS BOOK IS A SHEER JOY!
The adventures of William Clark and Merriweather Lewis have long been ample fodder for historical prose. Their expedition is probably the most memorable story of "See America First" type travel, and their triumph in exploring an unknown America has been well documented since the Jefferson era. But never has the story been so personal, nor as involving, as Brian Hall's take on their trek.
"I Should Be..." gets its title from Lewis's actual invitation to Clark to join the Corps of Discovery in exploring an uncharted Western America. The novel imagines the dialogue between the men, along with their native guide Sacagawea and Sacagewea's husband Toussaint Charbonneau, and uses the words of the foursome to propel the story from Washington DC to St. Louis, and then through the great Northwest. It removes the tale from the traditional dry narrative type of historical novel, and gives the characters rich, imagined lives that make the expedition almost personal to the reader.
All books of this type rise and fall on the strength of the cast, and Hall has populated his players with the necessary hopes, despairs and neuroses that would go hand in hand with creating a legendary tale. Lewis's grandeur in his mission and Clark's seeming envy at playing #2 in what was described to him as a mission led by equals are among the many plot devices used by Hall to make allready known charecters take on human form. A hysterical and well imagined portion of the book describing the naming of rivers after Lewis and Clark (where Clark gets the short end of the stick) is only one example of how well this story plays out.
Since the book is told in dialogue form, the chapters were Sacagawea describes the journey are difficult (Hall uses a device that blends English and Shoshone that is slightly confusing) but essential to the plot. This is a minor gripe for a book that is revolutionary in its retelling of history.
While everyone is familiar with how the story plays out and ends, there is a coda to the novel that describes Lewis and Clark's lives following the expedition that was new to me. Lewis's post-expedition live was tragic, while Clark became a mainstay of St. Louis society. Taking the book through their post-expedition lives gives Hall a great opportunity to expand on the price of fame and the fall of legends. He hits the mark with eloquence and sincerity.
I had never read anything by Hall prior to this book, so I don't know if the richness of this story could have been foreseen, or if he just got lucky. I will be looking forward to reading some of his other works now, for his talent in bringing character and emotion to one of history's greatest duo was incredibly impressive.

I loved this book!
It tells the famous expedition of Lewis and Clark from the perspectives of the participants, particularly Lewis, Clark and Sacagawea. Their voices form competing versions of the expedition; together they weave a narrative like glimpses of a river seen through branches. I was left with the sense that I had explored much more than just the blank space of the unknown on the map.
The mysteries in the hearts and minds of the characters unfolded inside of me. By the end of the book they had filled in a map of memories and desires that kept speaking to me long after I had closed the book.
This is a lyrical and rewarding book that will change the way you view the opening of the west and the history of America in general, along with what it means to explore the unknown, both up a river and through someone's heart.

I can hardly think of a book that has been more disappointing than this one. Expecting to read a scholarly analysis of the Lewis and Clark expedition, I read instead a nit-picking critique of words used in the explorers' journals. One chapter entitled "Hunting" barely recognized that these men had to shoot animals to live in its fevered attack on the fact that the explorers and their men actually shot animals. The reek of political correctness overwhelms this book. Certainly Lewis and Clark were human and not saints as they traversed the continent, but the conclusion one would draw from Slaughter's book is that Lewis and Clark (and Columbus and James Cook along the way) never did anything right. A sadly deficient work.

"Exploring Lewis and Clark" makes some interesting points about Lewis & Clark, somewhat in the spirit of being the devil's advocate.

Slaughter is clearly trying to draw a contrast between the worshipful view of L&C popularized by Stephen Ambrose and Ken Burns and what Slaughter views as the reality. Slaughter notes, for instance, that L&C hunted excessively, repeatedly stole from Indians, and generally exaggerated their historical importance. Slaughter also has a very interesting discussion of the life of Sacajawea and the possibility she lived longer than is conventionally acknowledged.

All this said, this is very much a niche product. One has to know a great deal about the L&C journey prior to reading this book. I would also suggest that it's a relatively thin book. I think Slaughter's interesting points probably could have been presented in 30 or 40 pages, but he has puffed it up to somewhat get to a book length.

Exploring Lewis and Clark constitues Corps of Discovery #202. First complete course#101 by reading Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose or the Lewis and Clark Journals and then you are ready to delve into the incisive and provocative critique of the Corps of Discovery by this author. As a Native American and the author of Yazoo Mingo - The Journeys of Moncacht-Apé Across North America 1687-1700, I appreciated slaughter's informative and thoughtful chapter on Porvio, also known as Sacagawea. The(rest of the) story regarding York was also of great interest.

Whether or not you agree with all of the author's conclusions this book will increase your knowledge and understanding of the Courageous Captains and their Corps of Discovery.

Although the style of writing was good in this book, there were some glaring innaccuracies. For example, it states that the Lewis and Clark Expedition discovered a water passage to the Pacific. Actually, their greatest disappointment was that they were not able to cross the continent by water because of the mountain ranges they had to cross. Also, York did not pull Clark out of the ravine to save his life during a flash flood. By the time York reached Clark and his party, they were already safely out of the ravine. There were several smaller mistakes that might have been corrected with more research.

A beautifully illustrated book and compelling story but theaccount is told too quickly, too many events mentioned but none in anydepth. The language is pretentious and gets in the way of the story. I use the book in the elementary school library where I work, to talk about creative nonfiction, but I have to stop contstantly to fill in details which the book leaves out and I change the words as I read. The actual events are so powerful - a shame the book doesn't convey this.

This is a wonderful sorce of information with a powerful storyline in the content area of American History. It deals with issues of slavery and longing to be free. An African- American slave by the name of York feels loyal to his master yet desires a life of his own. As a classroom teacher this is a for sure book choice for my classroom in teaching history to students. I highly recommend it to others.

I think that this book included a couple of true facts, but a lot of imagination, how could you know what someone about 100-110 years ago was thinking.I think Flora Seymour did fairly well job, considering that she was writing a children's storybook. I applaud you Flora Seymour!

This book was VERY exciting!! I am done with this book now, but I still think about it!! Sacagawea went through ALOT!! For instance like moving, making alot of stuff like: her clothes, shoes, tents, and baskets. Think about it!! Having to make all this stuff. It would take days!! I am sure thankful we have machines now to make different things!! I highly recommend this book!!

A pair of professional photographers identified and photographed many of the key places where events mentioned in the Lewis and Clark journals took place. In the text, they recount the journey and use carefully-chosen quotations. This is an attractive book. It may not capture the whole of the journey, but, in part because it is pared down, it would serve as an excellent companion for the many families who will retrace at least parts of the journey in the next few years.