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All the Stars in the Sky: The Santa Fe Trail Diary of Florrie Mack Ryder
Megan McDonald
Historical Fiction (Series)
'Ages 10 and up
Scholastic, 2003, $10.95, 0-439-16963-1
Florrie is having a hard time leaving everything she has ever known behind. Her best friend, her grandparents, even the grave of her father, must all remain in Arrow Rock Missouri. Florrie, her younger brother Jem, her mother, and her mother's new husband Mr. Ryder, are going to travel down the Santa Fe Trail to begin a new life in New Mexico, in the town of Santa Fe. Unlike the Oregon Trail and others that went towards the west coast, the Santa Fe Trail was used mostly by traders rather than by settlers. Nevertheless it was still a grueling journey and Florrie witnesses more than her fair share of suffering and hardship. During her journey she makes friendships that come to mean a great deal to her and that sustain her. We are drawn into the story as Florrie and her family battle their way down the trial and as we are charmed by Florrie's likeable and determined personality. Florrie sees things with a clarity which can be quite startling at times, even with regards to herself. For example she comments sadly early in the journey "I feel lost. "Like a stick figure drawn in the dust, erased by wagon tracks." Later she remarks "I am lonely and have fallen under the cloud of my own bad weather" Written in a style that suggests Florrie's own speech, the author has created a wonderful character and has gone to great lengths to study the times and the people she wrote about. Her inclusion of Spanish words, as Florrie begins to learn the language, is a particularly effective device. Both sad and at times humorous, Florrie's story gives us a thought-provoking picture of a time and place not often written about.
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