Emma's River

Description

In 1852, Emma and her mama board the Sally May for a steamboat journey filled with danger and adventure. When concern over her beloved pony, Licorice Twist, lures ten-year-old Emma below the main deck-a place that she has been forbidden to go-she is shocked by what she encounters. Here is a world completely different than the pampered one above with its comfortable stateroom and fine food. Here livestock and poor immigrants huddle together-underfed, unclean, and exhausted. Soon Emma is making regular trips below, ferrying food to Patrick, an eleven-year-old stowaway who recently emigrated from Ireland. Slowly, Emma and Patrick develop a friendship that spans classes and ship levels. When the boiler explodes and the steamboat begins to sink, Emma must fight her way through the black smoke to find her friends and family. But is it too late?

When Alison Hart was seven years old, she wrote, illustrated, and self-published a book called The Wild Dog. Since then, she's authored more than sixty books for young readers. A former teacher, she lives in Virginia. After a long career as a freelance illustrator, producing work for books and magazines, Paul Bachem now devotes his time to painting landscapes and seascapes from nature. His paintings are in numerous private collections as well as the permanent collection of the Forbes Gallery in New York City. He lives in New Jersey.

"Especially suited to "American Girl" series fans looking for slightly longer books. Emma is a plucky heroine. . . readers will enjoy following her as she learns and grows."-School Library Journal "Hart well conveys the sights, smells, and sounds of a nineteenth-century steamboat as well as Emma's gradual move away from willfulness and muddled thinking. There's never a dull moment"-Booklist