The Journal Of Callie Wade

by Dawn Miller

Dawn Miller's marvelous debut novel is a grand adventure - and a glorious love story - experienced with all the passion and yearning of a character you'll never eighteen-year-old Callie Wade, whose hopeful heart is as rich with promise as the beckoning frontier...
Independence, Missouri, May 3, 1859: "Home is where your heart leads you..." Mama had better be right, because we are traveling with a bunch of quite peculiar strangers. My dear little sister Rose may have lungs as frail as cobwebs, but I pray she'll live to see the California sun. Pa and my wild-hearted brother, Jack, are raring to go, but it's the women who have the salt to beat all! Walking miles in the dust, birthing babies on the trail...they'd put a general to shame. But I'm scared, and acting snappish - enough to put off Quinn McGregor, you might suppose. He's got a blacksmith's strength and the soul of a poet, and his grave blue Irish eyes seem to keep finding mine...
"When things get rough, It's the rubbin' that brings out the shine," said Mama, and I'm sure shining, through Kansas dust and Colorado rain and the parching Utah sun. Maybe it's true that life ain't in holding a good hand, but playing a poor one well! But oh, how I cherish the dances under the stars, the coffee brewed over sage fires, the beautiful pair of beaded moccasins left me as a secret gift...and the great love growing in my heart for Quinn...
The Journal of Callie Wade invites us into a world long vanished, brought to life once more in the once-in-a-lifetime experiences of a young pioneer woman. Here is her story...rich in love and sorrow, grit and grandeur...inspiring and unforgettable.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Romance, Historical

336 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1996

About the author

Dawn Miller is an award-winning filmmaker and author who has written and produced several books, a music video, and an urban teen drama. She lives in St. Louis with her teenage son and is currently at work on the graphic novel and feature film version of 'The Watcher Chronicles'.

Reviews

[Sara Stetz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love historical fiction. The route the wagon train took was what I looked at when planning our trip to Colorado; through the sand hills of Nebraska which the characters did by wagon. It was a reality check because I looked at it and was like “no way am I driving that long stretch of open nothing”. The challenges of the road out west were explored with likable characters and many lovable female leads. It was light and good holiday read. I had to take a break from the heavy Alaska sea voyage book. Must have a bug to get traveling!!!

[Nicole West Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING book. I got so involved in Callie's story that I felt absolutely everything she was feeling.
Words cannot describe how much I was tearing up at her Pa and sister Rose's deaths.

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think this might be my least favorite Oregon Trail story ever. It felt so fake--like the author hardly knew anything about the Oregon Trail, and the characters behaved like modern teens, not teens in the 1850s (premarital sex in the bushes???). I don't think the journal-style writing worked very well, either. Didn't connect with this story at all.

[Spideygirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. It was written in a way that kept me going on the journey. It was interesting to hear about such a tough journey across country in a covered wagon. The amount of hardship is almost unbelievable. At one point I was wondering if any of the characters would live until the end. Character development was good.

[Kathryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this about 20 years ago and as I began rereading it this week I remembered the broad strokes of the story. I love epistolary novels and I love stories of westward expansion so this should’ve been catnip for me.

Unfortunately, despite being a diary, I never felt a real connection with the narrator or any of those close to her. While the writing itself was good the story felt very typical and what any young romantic would plot for an Oregon Trail journey. Callie was a beautifully petite young woman with a dashing older brother, precocious and sickly younger sister, and benevolent father. She formed a friendship and eventual love with a romantic Irishman. I never felt that we got to know the characters much more than those broad strokes. I am very sentimental but the multiple sorrows in the story failed to move me because I never felt a connection to the characters. It also fell into the trap that many diary novels do of transcribing long conversations verbatim.

I wanted to like this more than I did. I appreciated that while secular fiction, the author kept the writing relatively PG with minimal fade to black moments that were easy to skip over.

I did enjoy Jack (Callie‘s brother) and I’m curious to read the sequel from his perspective. I also have my eye on the follow up trilogy where the author switches to Christian historical fiction and details Callie‘s life as a young homesteading mother. We’ll see if I continue.

[Anne Gerth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in the form of a journal/ diary, this book brings the story of being a pioneer and part of a wagon train west to life. Each chapter open with a wise quote from the journal keeps mother. “Home is where your heart leads you” and each chapter marks a new leg of the journey.

[Callie Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dawn Miller made me fall in love with historical fiction with this story. I only originally picked it up cause the characters name is spelled like mine... But glad I did. I have read it several times and am searching for the one she wrote where Callie's brother writes to her

[Bonnie Fennig · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my favorite kinds of historical fiction books done in journal format. Pleasant reading about the hardships on the wagon train trail to California. Bit more of a sappy romance than some but still a good read.

[Je'Taime · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this! This book was published in 1996. So it's been around for a bit, but it's a wonderful story. It's a story of a woman's journey along the Oregon trail, that had me actually crying a time or two.

[Abigail Rounds]

highly recommend over all awesome book

[Megan Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prequel. Favorite books. Christian, historical fiction. The story of Callies journey to California with her family during 1859. First of 4 books.

[Lois Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the vein of Laura Ingles Wilder, a wonderful tail of one family's trials crossing the plains to California.

[Katy Lovejoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the diary format and I love historical fiction

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love any pioneer novel in a diary format (thanks, no doubt, to the Little House books and the Dear America series). Therefore The Journal of Callie Wade boded well to become a new favorite. Indeed, it started off so well. I didn't quibble too much with the overly-descriptive and verbatim conversations recorded in the diary--after all, that merely added to my enjoyment of the story. However, the novel began breaking down for me when Callie and love-interest Quinn have a premarital romp in the prairie grass. No regret? No societal or religious compunction? At the moment, I felt deceived--this was a romance novel masquerading as a pioneer journal! The plot improved after this seemingly anachronistic incident, but the overall impression left me thinking this novel was very good, but flawed.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

To want to trek from the Midwest to California in the mid-1800s took a special breed of people with a determination beyond anything I can fathom. This story is told in a diary entry type format. And while it is fiction it is based on the life experience of the author's ancestor. I really have a deep appreciation for these early pioneers. I certainly would never have ventured it, if it were me. But, the west held out special dreams and promise of a better life. To many it was worth the risk. I did like this story, although I am not a fan of the diary type format or letter type format either, but I really felt the author did a good job describing the terrain and the struggle. By the end of the book I felt connected to the characters and felt I knew them. If you like pioneer covered-wagon type stories then I recommend this book.

[Joni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't set out to read this entire book today, but it was just that good! I so loved the characters (except, of course, for the Koch family). I'm not a history buff, so I don't know how accurate it all is, but it felt real enough to completely steal my attention all day.

BTW, this is just a book I picked up randomly off the shelf at the library while I was looking for another. I'm so glad it caught my eye!

[Mlg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eighteen year old Callie Wade is living on a farm in Missouri when her mother dies and her younger sister becomes consumptive. She, her father and her brother, Jack all decide to join a wagon train to California in order to save her sister's life. Some of the events of the book are based on the experiences of the author's great grandmother.

[Lilian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't want this book to end! I believe that women who lived in the days of old were made of something different. Callie Mae shares her journey of love, grief and becoming a woman. Reading her journal reminded me of how we take for granted modern day conveniences.

[Tams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't a book I would have usually read but am so glad that I did. It never made me bored or uninterested and I loved the characters. An Oregon Trail story that I never thought I would be interested in. I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it a lot.

[Emily Bell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a library sale find, and while the copy was old and the writing could be a bit cliche, I enjoyed this read. I was pretty quickly immersed into life on the Oregon Trail. If you're a fan of the 1883 television show this is very similar.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love reading about pioneers, this book was very emotional and informative about the hardships of travelling. This was a great book, and I hope to read the rest in the series.

[Peacelovebooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. It's a fiction historical story in the form of a diary.

[Mitzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are interested in the Oregon Trail or the old West in general, this will be right up your alley and well worth your time.

[Kristina Seleshanko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does a great job of detailing how difficult life was on the trail, but sometimes is a bit too modern and juvenile for my taste.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good pioneer story and all that comes along with traveling in wagon trains.