All the Stars in the Sky: The Santa Fe Trail Diary of Florrie Mack Ryder

Dear America

by Megan McDonald

Florrie finds the adventure of a lifetime along the Santa Fe Trail, meeting new challenges and dangers, after her mother decides to move her family from Missouri to New Mexico.

Starting their journey from their home in Missouri, Florrie Ryder and her family are headed towards the promise of a new life in Santa Fe. As they cross the Great Plains of the midwestern prairie, fording rivers and climbing mountains, the Ryders encounter endless hardship as they undertake this great adventure.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Middle Grade, Fiction, Childrens, Historical, Young Adult, Diary

192 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2003

About the author

"Sometimes I think I am Judy Moody," says Megan McDonald, author of the Judy Moody series, the Stink series, and THE SISTERS CLUB. "I'm certainly moody, like she is. Judy has a strong voice and always speaks up for herself. I like that."

For Megan McDonald, being able to speak up for herself wasn't always easy. She grew up as the youngest of five sisters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her father, an ironworker, was known to his coworkers as "Little Johnny the Storyteller." Every evening at dinner the McDonalds would gather to talk and tell stories, but Megan McDonald was barely able to get a word in edgewise. "I'm told I began to stutter," she says, leading her mother to give her a notebook so she could start "writing things down."


Critically acclaimed, the Judy Moody books have won numerous awards, ranging from a PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Best Book of the Year to an International Reading Association Children's Choice. "Judy has taken on a life of her own," the author notes, with nearly 3 million Judy Moody books in print. Interestingly, the feisty third-grader is highly popular with boys and girls, making for a strong base of fans who are among Megan McDonald's strongest incentives to keep writing, along with "too many ideas and a little chocolate." And now -- by popular demand -- Judy Moody's little brother, Stink, gets his chance to star in his own adventures! Beginning with STINK: THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING KID, three more stories, and his own encyclopedia, STINK-O-PEDIA, Stink's special style comes through loud and strong -- enhanced by a series of comic strips, drawn by Stink himself, which are sprinkled throughout the first book. About the need for a book all about Stink, Megan McDonald says, "Once, while I was visiting a class full of Judy Moody readers, the kids, many with spiked hair à la Judy's little brother, chanted, 'Stink! Stink! Stink! Stink! Stink!' as I entered the room. In that moment, I knew that Stink had to have a book all his own."


More recently, Megan McDonald has recalled some of her own childhood with the warmth, humor -- and squabbles -- of three spunky sisters in THE SISTERS CLUB.


Megan McDonald and her husband live in Sebastopol, California, with two dogs, two adopted horses, and fifteen wild turkeys that like to hang out on their back porch.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an engaging story written as the diary of a young girl traveling the Santa Fe Trail in about 1850. There were many hardships, but also many wonderful moments. The Santa Fe Trail was a bit different than most of the westward trails, as it wast traveled mostly by traders, not by settlers. Women were scare on this trail, as were families with children. The author has definitely done her research well.

[Anslee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one held up pretty well from childhood!

[Peyton Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was more childlike and innocent than most of the Dear America series I have read so far this year and I appreciate that after a couple of heavy other ones I have been working through. It has the sunny attitude towards the westward movement, the adventure of the trail and all that, that is what I’m used to from childhood and hard to swallow with an adult history education. There were a lot of horrors on the trail that Florrie saw and experienced that seemed... glossed over, I guess, after the first entry where it was reported. Maybe the choice was just to go with that childhood resilience. Maybe I’m just too far out to see the trail with the same adventurous mythos. It was a solid addition but I may not be returning to it.

[Emory · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was incredibly hard to get through because the narration was so random and all over the place. There just wasn’t much of a plot. Florrie was an interesting character because of her childlike innocence. It was written like a real diary some of the time (because most of it comprised of just random observations or amusing instances throughout her day) and the rest of the time it was incredibly unrealistic poetic and figurative language. I truly don’t know how to feel about this story. It’s an enigma.

Trigger warning for me personally: death of a premature infant.


AND ANOTHER THING (like 2 weeks later)- I was under the impression that this series is supposed to be about events and populations during substantial periods of American history. The author mentioned in the historical note that very few women and children went on the Santa Fe Trail. Then WHY was this book even written if most people didn’t go the trail with families? The series is supposed to be about average citizens throughout important American events and time periods, not people who randomly did things that were abnormal. If that makes sense at all.

[Kelsey Hanson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book featured a unique variety of cultures and languages that I found very interesting. It was a bittersweet story with many meetings and partings but all of the characters were interesting and showed how many different people came together while traveling on the trail. As I've said before, I love Dear America books that have a journey involved and this was no exception.

[kit]

why did this DA in particular take me about a week to read. why did my brain break

[clara · Rating 3 out of 5]

All the Stars in the Sky is a fantastic title, but not a great book. I liked it well enough; the Santa Fe trail is an interesting trail, I'd say. It's basically the same book as the other pioneer-y books in the series. There's nothing inherently wrong with that--I enjoy reading the same story over and over again--but it was just not an exciting book. There is nothing here.

The plot was kind of all over the place. The last 15% of the book was completely different from the previous 20%, which was in turn nothing like the first 65%. It feels like a plot that I would write. That's not a compliment. Florrie was a fine character. I don't know why the portrait on the cover looks like a Gibson girl. I'm not sure how she learned to speak Spanish so quickly, but good for her.

The book is just completely ordinary. It does not match up with the title at all. What is such a good title doing on such an ordinary book?

[Eleanor Decker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book more than I thought I would. I think the first few pages were written a little eccentrically, so I worried the whole book would be too goofy for me, but I really liked Florrie and her desire to learn more about the plants and animals of the prairie, and how to sketch them. Her friendships with Eliza and Louisa were very sweet, and Eliza was honestly very funny in her dialogue. The setting of the Santa Fe trail wasn’t particularly interesting, and we got little to no historical context in the diary entries, but in some ways that made it more endearing, and realistic to a twelve-year-old’s perspective. It broke my heart every time Florrie felt like her mother didn’t care for her anymore, and Mr. Ryder just seemed like a deadbeat. The Mo'e Ha plot felt very AG's Kirsten and Singing Bird-esque, but Mo’e’ha felt more like a full person.

[Kat Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

This might have been better had there not already been around 5 other books about westward expansion. Compared to the best (Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie), this is pretty mediocre. We've got all the standard stuff: brushes with "exotic" (Indigenous people); tragedy on the trail; an annoying sibling; and some nice descriptions of the natural world surrounding her. Fortunately there's not a shoehorned romance, but by the same token, there's not much in the way of plot here. The book starts to pick up once the reach Santa Fe, but that's also the end of the line.

I just don't have too much to say about this one. Not a particularly memorable narrator or overall entry in the series, which is already oversaturated with similar content.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read numerous books about Oregon Trail pioneers and Mormon Trail pioneers, but I've never read anything about those traveling on the Santa Fe Trail. I appreciated learning something new in this book. Florrie's adventures are typical of those from similar books, but McDonald still offers a nice blend of funny, poignant, exciting, and sad experiences to show the reality of life on the trail. Florrie is a likable heroine who talks and acts like a 12 year old. She's relatable and sympathetic. Her story makes for a quick, entertaining read. I've enjoyed almost all of the Dear America books I've read and this one is no exception.

[Catherine Flynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always love to read anything about history and the pioneers of people from the early 19th century. This story of Florrie was inspired by the diary written by Susan Magoffin. Her family was an early known trader in the day. Their journey was not easy but always a great story to read or hear. The hardship and resiliency people have to risk and to go through for a better life back then are just intriguing and amazing. I love Dear America. It's a stand-alone for each book, but a great way to learn history for all ages.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started reading this series when I was in third grade; today, my 30-year-old self finally tracked down the last one and finished reading it.

Even though this was one of the worst books (they were clearly running out of things to write about) I absolutely love this series and it has a special place in my childhood heart. I learned so much more from these books than I ever did in my history classes. Dear America <3

[Mae · Rating 4 out of 5]

The problem with reading these books one after another is that one's with similar threads all tend to blend together until you can't remember which book is which. I remember in the moment really liking this book. I can recall that there were several sad moments, but that's the reality of life on the trail west. But now, I cannot remember specifics of the story because I'm confusing it with all the other books about traveling west. So my suggestion is to read all of them.

[Kristal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never knew about the Santa Fe trail- I knew about the Oregon Trail and things like that, and it makes sense there would be a variety of trails people took for different locations for a variety of reasons. I like that the book featured a variety of cultures in a positive way, but I did find this book dragged a bit unlike the other “traveling books” of the Dear America series.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading all the Dear Americas and Royal Diaries (43/63)

Another going west diary - I didn't realize just how many of these there are - there are so many more interesting parts of US history! This one does have some unique points - they're traveling the Santa Fe Trail, which was more commonly used for trade, and the author spent some time being a historical re-enactor at the fort featured.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book very much.I am a fan of what I call Pioneer books and this fit that.It in diary format telling of the family's trip on the Oregon trail.What a time they had getting there.It is well worth the reading.

[Brooke · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m officially not into the prairie life anymore.

[Amy Moniz · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting, and I learned a lot about what a young girl's perspective of that time/trip was like.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Santa Fe Trail, a trading trail through the desert to New Mexico, and a family's travels to there.

[Tori · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed Florrie's character more than most of the girls whose diaries I've read so far. The history was interesting but the end with the baby was a little kitsch.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dear America series is a nice juvenile introduction to history. What I liked about this was because it was Santa Fe my new home.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a sweet story.

[Shari Turner · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would not recommend this book for children because of the fortune teller and a child cussing without being punished.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really great story that really captured a lot of the atmosphere of the trail, especially the beautiful aspects.

[Miriel68 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a particularly interesting entry in the series, I think teenager readers could find it boring, because the narration is all over the place

[Philomena · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was actually a really great book

[Roberta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I seriously love this series so much.

[Summer Renberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was good.

[Ana Mardoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the Stars in the Sky (Santa Fe Trail) / 0-439-16963-1

"All the Stars in the Sky" takes the reader over the Santa Fe trail as the narrator's family emigrates to their new home. Like many of the Dear America books, the narrator's family life is frustratingly messy - in this case, her mother is newly remarried after having been a widow for many years, and the children are forced to adjust to a new father and a new way of life at the same time, for Mr. Ryder is a merchant and merchants must go where the customers go, in this case, Santa Fe.

Young Florrie learns a great deal through her trail experiences, including the value of forgiveness for her friends and family, the importance of meeting people from other cultures, and the pioneering skills to keep a family safe, fed, and warm in the harsh American wilderness. In many ways, "All the Stars in the Sky" is reminiscent of the other successful Dear America trail diaries, including the Oregon Trail diary, and it is always fascinating to see how difficult and treacherous these trail travels could be for the people traveling them.

For parents, there is a great deal of excitement in this novel, but very little that would be frightening to a young child. However, there is a fatal accident on the trail, when a tent catches fire at night, and there is mention of families dying of illnesses along the way. There is no overt sexuality, but the newly remarried mother does become pregnant along the trail before being put on bed rest in the nearest town to await a difficult delivery. Taken as a whole, this is a wonderful novel for inquiring children, and I was impressed at how sensitive the author is to other cultures - Florrie learns (and teaches the reader!) dozens of Spanish and American Indian words for everything from "candle" to "magpie".

~ Ana Mardoll

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dear America loves its Western Expansion stories, and All the Stars in the Sky takes us to New Mexico on the Santa Fe Trail. This book is slightly unique in that it’s the first (of what I’ve read) that features a stepfather, and McDonald actually demonstrates the tension and confusion that can result from having a new father rather well. It also has some good historical details and the mixing of Mexican, Native American, and American is done well enough that it gives a good picture of the mixing of cultures.

Unfortunately, for the most part, the book reads a lot like a copy of Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie—except not nearly as memorable or as well-written. It’s another “on the trail” story, one that’s not really necessary. I think it would have been better to have something much more similar to Seeds of Hope (a review to come),which has a minimum amount of traveling and describes more of what happens at the destination. I think that format also would have emphasized more of the culture and the environment at the time. I do like that McDonald featured what she did, but I think it could have been more successful in a different fashion.

Because of its similarities—and inferiority—to Wide and Lonesome Prairie, and its lack of truly memorable or stand-out events, All the Stars in the Sky is, sadly, forgettable. I liked the different depiction of the family unit, and I felt McDonald was mildly successful in imbuing her story with cultural aspects and historical details, but I just felt as if it could have been even more successful if McDonald had chosen to emphasize more of Santa Fe and less of “trail life.” However, I did really like the font used for the title and for the diary entries. I am a sucker for appealing, sharp font.