Alone: The Journey of the Boy Sims

by Alan K. Garinger

Orphaned at thirteen, pioneer Joshua Sims joins a survey crew helping to build Michigan Road in order to pay for his family's northern Indiana homestead. When the surveyors' ink supply is accidentally lost in the Tippecanoe River, Sims is ordered to travel alone to Detroit, Michigan, to obtain more. Traveling by foot, boat, and horseback, Sims meets runaway slaves, Native Americans, canal builders, and other frontier figures as he journeys to Fort Wayne, across Lake Erie, and along the Sauk Trail in Michigan. Sims's encounters force him to re-evaluate his beliefs about the people in the rapidly changing land he now calls home.

Genres: Fiction, Historical

194 pages, Hardcover

First published September 23, 2008

Reviews

[Debra Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fake news meets Forrest Gump. This is a very entertaining phenomenal learning tool. Thank you.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

My kids loved this book and experiencing their home state as it was settled has been a fun experience. This book was wonderfully written.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

In October, 1833 a 13 year old boy was sent on an errand from central Indiana to Detroit to obtain ink. This book is about his journey.

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the great state of Indiana 4th grade is the year that the social studies classes focus on Indiana history. My youngest daughter is in 4th grade and her entire class read this book.

The book is set in 1833 and even though it has been a state since 1816, in many ways Indiana is still a wild frontier, especially in northern Indiana (the Ohio River was often the route that settlers took to Indiana in the early days and it forms the southern border of the state). Road crews are working on building Michigan Road - a "road" that will connect the Ohio River to Lake Michigan, a distance of more than 250 miles.

While somewhere in the vicinity of what will eventually be Logansport, Indiana a thirteen year old member of the crew is sent to Detroit all by himself for more ink to draw out the maps and keep track of the surveys that the crews were taking. This trip is well more than 200 miles one way and it is already late October...

I found the book to be interesting but loosely constructed. Sometimes the plot generated lots more questions than it answered and the book was desperately in need of lots and lots of maps. The author wanted to make the book a learning experience for Hoosier children but the number of people that Sims meets on his trip and their symbolic (or actual) significance to history got a bit tedious to me. The parade of runaway slaves, slave catchers, soldiers, Indians avoiding the soldiers and even a cameo by Johnny Appleseed (he was a real person) made the story move into the range of impossibility. If I were rating the book as an adult I would give it 3 stars out of 5.

But, this is not a book aimed at adults and my daughter...

Read more at: http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2015/...

[Carla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book! My son's class is reading it later in the year and the teacher gave me a copy to preview as I volunteer at a nature center and enjoy making literature connections with nature. I took several pages of notes for a program on the book at the center. This is a children's book. It appears well documented with the list of references and resources in the back. I read it in about 1 1/2 days. I would compare this to Sign of the Beaver, but set in Indiana, very close to where we live in the 1830s. The boy encounters many great historical figures as he makes his journey in search of ink. I look forward to doing more with this!
http://insideoutsidemichiana.blogspot...

[Kristy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historical fiction about an orphaned 13 year old boy working to build Michigan Road. His 4 week solo run for ink needed for his survey crew takes him across many miles and characters. Loosely based on a true journal entry of a young boy sent on just such a mission. Simple, enjoyable story for children or young adults. I enjoyed it for its historical significance to the Indiana area in which I live.

[Andreakuieck · Rating 5 out of 5]

I originally read this manuscript (under the title "Ink") into a tape recorder for my dad, whose eyesight had failed. The hoosier history lesson is fascinating and very well researched. This is a highly entertaining book!