New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Honor recipient Steve
Sheinkin welcomes young readers to the thrilling, tragic, and
downright wild historic adventure of America's westward expansion in
Which Way to the Wild West? Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You
About America's Westward Expansion, featuring illustrations by Tim
Robinson.
**
1805:** Explorer William Clark reaches the Pacific Ocean and pens the
badly spelled line "Ocian in view! O! the joy!" (Hey, he was an
explorer, not a spelling bee champion!)
1836: Mexican general Santa Anna surrounds the Alamo, trapping 180
Texans inside and prompting Texan William Travis to declare, "I shall
never surrender or retreat."
1861: Two railroad companies, one starting in the West and one in
the East, start a race to lay the most track and create a
transcontinental railroad.
With a storyteller's voice and attention to the details that make
history real and interesting, Steve Sheinkin delivers the wild facts
about America's greatest adventure. From the Louisiana Purchase
(remember: if you're negotiating a treaty for your country, play it
cool.) to the gold rush (there were only three ways to get to
California--all of them bad) to the life of the cowboy, the Indian wars,
and the everyday happenings that defined living on the frontier.
"An engaging...medley of anecdotes about the Wild West in nine lively
chapters starting with the Louisiana Purchase and ending with the Lakota
massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890. Casual vignettes of famous figures and
ordinary people come to life." --School Library Journal
"Sheinkin builds his conversational narrative around stories of the men
and women who peopled the west, with particular attention given to
African Americans, Chinese workers, and everyday farmers and cowboys.
There's plenty of humor here, but Sheinkin's strength is his ability to
transition between events."--The Horn Book
Also by Steve Sheinkin:
Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous
Weapon
The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism &
Treachery
The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil
Rights
Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football
Team
Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam
War
King George: What Was His Problem?: Everything Your Schoolbooks
Didn't Tell You About the American Revolution
***Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You
About the Civil War
***Born to Fly: The First Women's Air Race Across America
