A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple, Mayflower, 1620 (Dear America...

A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple, Mayflower, 1620 (Dear America Series) | Kathryn Lasky | Pleased mother

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A Journey to the N...

	A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple, Mayflower, 1620 (Dear America Series) Kathryn Lasky, 1996 - 176 pages average customer review:based on 74 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Pilgrim girl makes the dangerous journey on the Mayflower to a new world filled with promise and unexpected hardships.

Remember Patience Whipple

This is a very good look at early pilgrim life, or at least as good a one as is likely to make its way into popular children's literature. The pilgrims' penchant for grave robbing is toned down (a 'mound' of earth is dug up, with no mention that the mound is a freshly dug grave) and the Native Americans are treated as fairly as could be hoped for in a book that attempts to see them through a little English girl's eyes (she envies their ability to swim and admires their herbal remedies which end up saving several pilgrim lives).

This is a good addition to the Dear America series, though I found it to be slightly less compelling than the Oregon Trail diary. The crossing over is described fairly blandly, though to be fair is probably accurate - the passengers weren't often allowed to be ondeck and underfoot. Similarly, the construction of the colony seems to move as a blur, but the author is handicapped (as so many of the Dear America books are) by the fact that the girl in question would not have been allowed to participate in a meaningful manner in these activities simply because she is a girl. None of this makes the book less worthy of reading, and is just mentioned here as a caution to not set expectations too high for action/adventure.

It is worth noting to parents: Something like 17+ pilgrims die in this book, including one baby who dies almost immediately after childbirth, and a close member of the diary writer's family. The diary accurately reflects the growing numbness of the author, with entries like "Dear [diary], Four more people died today. Yours, Mem." While I felt this made for a realistic portrayal, it is possible that a very small child may find this distressing.

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Pleased mother

My daughter is studying the pilgrims in school and will not put this book down. She is a good reader, but this is the first book that has her engaged. I think she enjoys the fact that the events really could or did happen. I think she is reading it and feels like she is almost the character. She told me to find her more historical fiction.

Dear America

These Diary stories were some of my favorite books when I was younger. Now that I have grown up I still enjoy reading them. They are awesome books to do book reports on. This story was especially well written. I enjoyed reading about mems life in a new world

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Diary of a young Pilgrim

This is the story [fictional, told in a series of diary entries] of Remember Patience Whipple or Mem who came to the New World on the Mayflower in 1620.The conditions aboard the ship are nothing short of harsh and lacking the basic amenities.Once the Pilgrims, as they came to be called, arrive at their destination ,they find things are even worse onland. Life in the colonies is harsh and Mem suffers a personal tragedy that has her almost giving it all up. The rest of the diary tells us how Mem rebuilds her life in the Colonies.

As with all the books in the Dear America series, there is a historical note at the end ,as well as pictures and photographs of the period. Highly recommended!

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Okay

My 8-year-old daughter enjoyed this book and actually learned quite a bit about the pilgrims. However, the antiquated language was a bit difficult for her to get used to.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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