Tree in the Trail

great

The story of the tree on the Santa Fe trail was so so good, I want it to be true so I could see the yoke made from it. The illustrations were fantastic. We used it for homeschooling and we learned so much about the trail and the people that traveled it. I HIGHLY recommend this book.

Holling Clancy Holling's stories are not your typical kiddy fare that fills the shelves today...you, know, the lame storylines or action books with bad grammar. You won't get bad grammar and mindless mass-produced stories in these books. You will get an engaging tale that sparks the imagination and instructs the intellect.We enjoyed these with our homeschooled children and now use them in unit studies with others we tutor. They are great to use for younger students to launch history and geography studies. (We can recommend getting the Beautiful Feet geography maps that supplement these books...more expensive than a map print off from the internet but so beautifully constructed that the project becomes something the child and family want to keep.)The Holling stories ARE from a 1950's perspective, and they ARE from a secular viewpoint, so you do get some old fashion "campfire" mythology. You also get old-fashion American pioneer enthusiasm for adventure and an opportunity to reflect on the full panorama of American life without all the modern cynicism...very refreshing for many of us. We simply chose the panorama as opportunity to discuss our family values as need be.Tree in the Trail tells the tale of social development in the Southwest from Indians to missionaries to white settlers. The "campfire" mythology of the tree is more prevalent than Paddle to the Sea or Seabird, but still remains only a backdrop and does reflect how some Indian mythology while not embraced was acknowledged and passed along by many of the early white settlers.Tree in the Trail did feel a little longer than Paddle to the Sea and Seabird, but only by 2 pages. I felt I could have skipped the last 2 page non-illustrated denouement.Of this series, I can't recommend Minn of the Mississippi. It is written in a much more difficult reading style, assumed some secular science which would require higher reasoning discussion for families than the series style generally supports (although the illustrations Holling uses came from a opponent of Darwinism), and the story in Minn of the Mississippi simply was a far less engaging and had far less useful side-bar lessons.

Love ALL his books. Have read this book aloud a couple of times to students as a companion to American History. Students responded so well to it. Great illustrations and touching prose.

Our boys are loving this book! They are learning so much about history and geography through this well written story.

I remember this book when I was a kid learning to read. I got this for my grandson when he visits his grandparents so that I have something to share with him as he learns to read, and maybe learn about the old west.

I bought this book for my 13 yr. old grandson, who loved it as much as I did at the same age. He had been studying the move west an loved all the stories that added depth to the history.

This is a great history book for explaining the plains and the way the buffalo were everywhere before the people were there and then continues through to a more modern-day Santa Fe. It is from the viewpoint of a tree and begins with a young Native American protecting the tree from the buffalo. We read one chapter a night and my daughter and I loved it. A chapter is usually around a page or so and there are lovely illustrations to go with each one. It was written quite awhile ago, but will not grow old.

same author as Paddle-to-the-sea which I owned in my youth and was one of my favourite books. Not quite as good a story as Paddle but is quite educational like Paddle. Needs an upgrade to alter referrring to native Americans as Indians. Use a proper Race name such as Apache or any other actual American race, would be a good up-date.

Excellent book, highly recommended.

this is a wonderful book, which captures the history of the West through the narrative of the tree.

Lovely book, lovely illustrations, A4 size too which was a nice surprise,

This book was part of my children's geography homeschooling. What a fun, interesting book. it would be even more interesting if it were Canadian :) - but I really enjoyed the book, and so did my children. We colored maps, adding on the places mentioned in the book, drew our own pictures of the tech (flintlock guns, the yoke, stockades), jotted down information in our illustrated notebooks, and it was a fun little addition.