Apr 15, 2022
California's history is full of adventure, and author Marie Sontag dives in with her Whitcomb Discoveries series. Beginning with the California Trail (and characters who were part of the ill-fated Donner party), Sontag mingles actual historical figures with her own characters to the past to life for today's youth.
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Mystery, adventure, ill-fated treks across the wilderness, new paths across uncharted territories--Marie Sontag offers it all. Not only that, but you see the good and bad of all sides of history in a frank look at California before it was settled after Westward Expansion and statehood.
Not only that, but Marie Sontag also has new middle-grade and YA fiction coming that showcases other historical eras and places. I loved hearing about how she met readers who were connected with both series in one way or another. And I also loved learning that her website offers videos she took while in the very places she writes about.
Check out the Whitcomb Discoveries and see if Daniel ever learns what happens to his parents, how he knows the Donner Party, and what life was like during the Gold Rush era.
Join sixteen-year-old Daniel Whitcomb as he juggles a growing relationship with Virginia Reed, one of the survivors of the Donner Party, helps his Miwok friend learn how to read and write, and manages the account ledgers for his guardian, Jim Savage at his trading posts in the California goldfields.
Is Jim correct when he says, You can't possess what you can't protect? Does that justify fighting the Yosemites after they attack Jim's posts or the Mariposa Battalion's entrance into Yosemite to rout out the Ahwahneechee? And will Daniel ever make it back to Illinois to solve the mystery of his parents' deaths?
Yosemite Trail Discovered provides an intriguing read for YA readers as they explore the clash of cultures that led to the whites' first public discovery of Yosemite Valley.
You can learn more about Marie Sontag on her WEBSITE. Don't forget to check out those videos!