Tree in the Trail

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Genre: Historical fiction; Santa Fe National Historic Tra; Historical - United States - General; Juvenile Fiction; Children's Books/Ages 4-8 Fiction; Children: Grades 4-6; USA; Santa Fe Trail; Nature and the Natural World - General; Juvenile Fiction / Nature and the Natural World; Fiction; Stories; Trees;

Average Review: 4.5 stars

Review: History of a Tree : TREE IN THE TRAIL is a story about a cottonwood sapling that stood along an ancient buffalo trail somewhere in the Great Plains. Holling Clancy Holling writes an enriched narrative that centers on history, which involved early contact between Europeans and Native Americans, and the exchange of goods and resources that occurred between these groups of people. Holling stresses the beauty of the natural landscape and environment of the Great Plains and the Southwest region of North America, and the encounters that the people observed and experienced as a result of several technological advances - the steamboat and the Conestoga Wagon, which allowed increased contact and relations. The story takes place within a span of 300 years. From the arrival of Coronado for the search for gold in 1540 to the establishment of New Mexico, Holling tells the story of a tree that lived over hundred years, but succumbed to age and natural destruction. However, a part of the tree was revived in the form of an ox yoke that two mountain men, Buck Smith and Jed Simpson happened to carve out from a portion of her trunk, and transformed it into a beautiful yoke. The unique aspect of Holling's stories and books are that he provides little side notes in the form of illustrations that are positioned within each different chapter that provide an additional historical interpretation of Indian, French trappers, and cultural life of the people that inhabited and ventured into Taos, Santa Fe, and Kansas territory. History is a major part of the book. Holling illustrated and wrote the story, but also acknowledged his wife, Lucille Webster Holling, as a major contributor to the illustrations and research that was conducted about the trail and the map. He also credits Arthur Woodward of the Los Angeles Museum for the accuracy of the costume and ornament of Spanish Southwest and the Conestoga wagon. TREE IN THE TRAIL will engage the history reader as well as those curious about how Europeans and Native Americans thrived together in an environment and time in American history that was experiencing a transformation. This is a story that is sure to entertain every reader, and take each one back to a time of discovery.