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Dear America
Land of the Buffalo Bones: The Diary of Mary Ann Elizabeth Rodgers, An English Girl in Minnesota
"Land of the Buffalo Bones" is the diary of Mary Rodgers, known as Polly. Promising religious freedom and fertile land, Polly's father, Reverend Rodgers, moves their Baptist community from England to the Minnesota prairie. After a treacherous journey across the sea and across this country, Polly finds that it is no paradise at all. Written with incredible heart and compassion, insight and sensitivity, Marion Dane Bauer has created one of the most sophisticated and courageous characters Dear America has seen.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2003
About the author
Marion Dane Bauer
181 books186 followersMarion Dane Bauer is the author of more than one hundred books for young people, ranging from novelty and picture books through early readers, both fiction and nonfiction, books on writing, and middle-grade and young-adult novels. She has won numerous awards, including several Minnesota Book Awards, a Jane Addams Peace Association Award for RAIN OF FIRE, an American Library Association Newbery Honor Award for ON MY HONOR, a number of state children's choice awards and the Kerlan Award from the University of Minnesota for the body of her work.
She is also the editor of and a contributor to the ground-breaking collection of gay and lesbian short stories, Am I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence.
Marion was one of the founding faculty and the first Faculty Chair for the Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her writing guide, the American Library Association Notable WHAT'S YOUR STORY? A YOUNG PERSON'S GUIDE TO WRITING FICTION, is used by writers of all ages. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen different languages.
She has six grandchildren and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with her partner and a cavalier King Charles spaniel, Dawn.
-------------------------------------
INTERVIEW WITH MARION DANE BAUER
-------------------------------------
Q. What brought you to a career as a writer?
A. I seem to have been born with my head full of stories. For almost as far back as I can remember, I used most of my unoccupied moments--even in school when I was supposed to be doing other "more important" things--to make up stories in my head. I sometimes got a notation on my report card that said, "Marion dreams." It was not a compliment. But while the stories I wove occupied my mind in a very satisfying way, they were so complex that I never thought of trying to write them down. I wouldn't have known where to begin. So though I did all kinds of writing through my teen and early adult years--letters, journals, essays, poetry--I didn't begin to gather the craft I needed to write stories until I was in my early thirties. That was also when my last excuse for not taking the time to sit down to do the writing I'd so long wanted to do started first grade.
Q. And why write for young people?
A. Because I get my creative energy in examining young lives, young issues. Most people, when they enter adulthood, leave childhood behind, by which I mean that they forget most of what they know about themselves as children. Of course, the ghosts of childhood still inhabit them, but they deal with them in other forms--problems with parental authority turn into problems with bosses, for instance--and don't keep reaching back to the original source to try to fix it, to make everything come out differently than it did the first time. Most children's writers, I suspect, are fixers. We return, again and again, usually under the cover of made-up characters, to work things through. I don't know that our childhoods are necessarily more painful than most. Every childhood has pain it, because life has pain in it at every stage. The difference is that we are compelled to keep returning to the source.
Q. You write for a wide range of ages. Do you write from a different place in writing for preschoolers than for young adolescents?
A. In a picture book or board book, I'm always writing from the womb of the family, a place that--while it might be intruded upon by fears, for instance--is still, ultimately, safe and nurturing. That's what my own early childhood was like, so it's easy for me to return to those feelings and to recreate them.
When I write for older readers, I'm writing from a very different experience. My early adolescence, especially, was a time of deep alienation, mostly from my peers but in some ways from my family as well. And so I write my older stories out of that pain, that longing for connection. A story has to have a problem at its core. No struggle
She is also the editor of and a contributor to the ground-breaking collection of gay and lesbian short stories, Am I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence.
Marion was one of the founding faculty and the first Faculty Chair for the Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her writing guide, the American Library Association Notable WHAT'S YOUR STORY? A YOUNG PERSON'S GUIDE TO WRITING FICTION, is used by writers of all ages. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen different languages.
She has six grandchildren and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with her partner and a cavalier King Charles spaniel, Dawn.
-------------------------------------
INTERVIEW WITH MARION DANE BAUER
-------------------------------------
Q. What brought you to a career as a writer?
A. I seem to have been born with my head full of stories. For almost as far back as I can remember, I used most of my unoccupied moments--even in school when I was supposed to be doing other "more important" things--to make up stories in my head. I sometimes got a notation on my report card that said, "Marion dreams." It was not a compliment. But while the stories I wove occupied my mind in a very satisfying way, they were so complex that I never thought of trying to write them down. I wouldn't have known where to begin. So though I did all kinds of writing through my teen and early adult years--letters, journals, essays, poetry--I didn't begin to gather the craft I needed to write stories until I was in my early thirties. That was also when my last excuse for not taking the time to sit down to do the writing I'd so long wanted to do started first grade.
Q. And why write for young people?
A. Because I get my creative energy in examining young lives, young issues. Most people, when they enter adulthood, leave childhood behind, by which I mean that they forget most of what they know about themselves as children. Of course, the ghosts of childhood still inhabit them, but they deal with them in other forms--problems with parental authority turn into problems with bosses, for instance--and don't keep reaching back to the original source to try to fix it, to make everything come out differently than it did the first time. Most children's writers, I suspect, are fixers. We return, again and again, usually under the cover of made-up characters, to work things through. I don't know that our childhoods are necessarily more painful than most. Every childhood has pain it, because life has pain in it at every stage. The difference is that we are compelled to keep returning to the source.
Q. You write for a wide range of ages. Do you write from a different place in writing for preschoolers than for young adolescents?
A. In a picture book or board book, I'm always writing from the womb of the family, a place that--while it might be intruded upon by fears, for instance--is still, ultimately, safe and nurturing. That's what my own early childhood was like, so it's easy for me to return to those feelings and to recreate them.
When I write for older readers, I'm writing from a very different experience. My early adolescence, especially, was a time of deep alienation, mostly from my peers but in some ways from my family as well. And so I write my older stories out of that pain, that longing for connection. A story has to have a problem at its core. No struggle
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February 23, 2011
Land of the Buffalo Bones (New Yeovil) / 0-439-22027-0
The Dear America series strives to provide fictionalized retelling of historical events in American history, brought to vivid life for children and adults alike. This addition to the series is unusual in that the characters within are based on real life people, related to the author. The end result, however, is a novel that is full of too much hardship and - frankly - too much intractable stupidity on the part of the main characters, to be of much enjoyment to the reader.
"Land of the Buffalo Bones" follows the rise and inglorious fall of the New Yeovil settlement. The diarist's father is the Baptist minister of the colony and he manages to be unthinkingly cruel, impossibly stupid, frustratingly dense, and unforgivably lazy over the course of this maddening journey. He alone has seen the "paradise" to which he encourages his English congregation to travel to, but fails to mention that basic necessities like, say, trees for wooden houses are completely lacking on the prairie. He either lies outright to his congregation or demonstrates impossible simplicity when he repeats the lie of the railroads financing their emigration - that a new town already exists for them to live in. In truth, they are dumped in the middle of nowhere, with no houses, no town, no trees, nothing on which to survive.
The reader will be frustrated by Mary's unthinking devotion to her worthless father who never works at anything, including their garden, because a minister cannot be expected to dirty his hands. When a prairie fire threatens their homes, the wife and children dig ditches for safety while their father disappears for hours to "warn" people of the obviously approaching fire - it is clear that he simply didn't want to get his hands dirty. Although they cannot afford the large family they already have and their many children are frequently on the verge of starvation, he continually gets his wife pregnant, and the women in the community castigate her for this irresponsibility. When money is needed to send a sullen servant girl back home, he sells his wife's precious piano without her permission - of course, he does not sell his own fine writing desk, as a minister needs his writing desk. And when a young lady in his congregation is repeatedly beaten by her father, to the point that she seeks solace in a nearby reservation, he does not reprimand the man or reveal his daughter's motives to the people, preferring to save the man's "honor" and let the congregation call the young woman terrible names in her absence.
While I concede that this book has historical value in detailing the failed community of New Yeovil, readers will likely not be able to get past their frustration at how stupid, cruel, petty, and generally worthless most of the characters within are. I genuinely cannot think of one nice thing to save about any of the settlers, which makes for unpleasant reading. Mary, the diarist, alternately complains constantly or writes gushing paeans to her father - she rarely finds a bright side to their new home or experiences a flash of insight with regards to her father. Her step-mother is the same; the other children are either rarely mentioned or a distinct annoyance - young Laura routinely destroys expensive and irreplaceable papers and paints and is never reprimanded by her parents, and their father openly tells Laura that she is his "true" daughter, now that Mary's own mother is dead.
Unless you have a specific interest in the colony in question, I would not recommend this book when there are far better Dear America books out there.
~ Ana Mardoll
The Dear America series strives to provide fictionalized retelling of historical events in American history, brought to vivid life for children and adults alike. This addition to the series is unusual in that the characters within are based on real life people, related to the author. The end result, however, is a novel that is full of too much hardship and - frankly - too much intractable stupidity on the part of the main characters, to be of much enjoyment to the reader.
"Land of the Buffalo Bones" follows the rise and inglorious fall of the New Yeovil settlement. The diarist's father is the Baptist minister of the colony and he manages to be unthinkingly cruel, impossibly stupid, frustratingly dense, and unforgivably lazy over the course of this maddening journey. He alone has seen the "paradise" to which he encourages his English congregation to travel to, but fails to mention that basic necessities like, say, trees for wooden houses are completely lacking on the prairie. He either lies outright to his congregation or demonstrates impossible simplicity when he repeats the lie of the railroads financing their emigration - that a new town already exists for them to live in. In truth, they are dumped in the middle of nowhere, with no houses, no town, no trees, nothing on which to survive.
The reader will be frustrated by Mary's unthinking devotion to her worthless father who never works at anything, including their garden, because a minister cannot be expected to dirty his hands. When a prairie fire threatens their homes, the wife and children dig ditches for safety while their father disappears for hours to "warn" people of the obviously approaching fire - it is clear that he simply didn't want to get his hands dirty. Although they cannot afford the large family they already have and their many children are frequently on the verge of starvation, he continually gets his wife pregnant, and the women in the community castigate her for this irresponsibility. When money is needed to send a sullen servant girl back home, he sells his wife's precious piano without her permission - of course, he does not sell his own fine writing desk, as a minister needs his writing desk. And when a young lady in his congregation is repeatedly beaten by her father, to the point that she seeks solace in a nearby reservation, he does not reprimand the man or reveal his daughter's motives to the people, preferring to save the man's "honor" and let the congregation call the young woman terrible names in her absence.
While I concede that this book has historical value in detailing the failed community of New Yeovil, readers will likely not be able to get past their frustration at how stupid, cruel, petty, and generally worthless most of the characters within are. I genuinely cannot think of one nice thing to save about any of the settlers, which makes for unpleasant reading. Mary, the diarist, alternately complains constantly or writes gushing paeans to her father - she rarely finds a bright side to their new home or experiences a flash of insight with regards to her father. Her step-mother is the same; the other children are either rarely mentioned or a distinct annoyance - young Laura routinely destroys expensive and irreplaceable papers and paints and is never reprimanded by her parents, and their father openly tells Laura that she is his "true" daughter, now that Mary's own mother is dead.
Unless you have a specific interest in the colony in question, I would not recommend this book when there are far better Dear America books out there.
~ Ana Mardoll
March 1, 2010
Mary Ann Elizabeth Rodgers, called Polly by her family, is the fourteen-year-old daughter of a Baptist minister. She was born and raised in England, but now her father has decided to move the family to Minnesota in search of religious freedom. Polly begins her diary on the journey by steamship to America and describes the challenges her family and friends face on their journey to their new home, challenges that do not end once they reach Minnesota. The Rodgers and their fellow settlers face the bitter cold of winter and the scorching heat of summer, endless blizzards, a disastrous plague of locusts, as well as illness and death.
Land of the Buffalo Bones is an excellent addition to the Dear America series that described the hardships of life on the prairie in the 1870s. It is unique among the books of the series in that it is based on the life of a real person from the author's family. I recommend this book to all fans of the series.
Land of the Buffalo Bones is an excellent addition to the Dear America series that described the hardships of life on the prairie in the 1870s. It is unique among the books of the series in that it is based on the life of a real person from the author's family. I recommend this book to all fans of the series.
December 13, 2015
I REALLY enjoyed this book for a variety of reasons. The main reason being that unlike other books in this series, this book is grounded in fact and features real historical people (members of the author's family. On a more personal level, I live in Wisconsin and for once I was actually recognize many of the locations mentioned in this story having been to many of them myself. Like I said in previous reviews I like the stories that feature a journey and this shows how they were able to build a new life. I was frustrated with some of the characters at how stupid they could be at times. It was obvious that they had no idea what they were getting into and bought into a lot of propaganda. Still, this seems to be one of the more historically accurate and personal books that I have read in this series.
September 29, 2025
Things that suck
1. Locusts
2. Minnesota winters
3. Sea burials
4. Reverend George Rodgers!!!!!
I’ve seen a lot of intensely mixed reviews on this book. The Land of the Buffalo Bones is, to my knowledge, the only Dear America book that a protagonist that actually lived in history. Unfortunately, that means that her terrible father also really lived and did most of the things that he did in this book. I think this novel unintentionally shines light on the fine line between a religious spirit and true faith. Dr. Rodgers does literally nothing right in this entire book because he is living in a fantasy world and saying “God will provide”, but then he does not accept a salary for his job, gives away their possessions, and generally just does not do anything to provide for his family of literal nine children. (This is not a criticism of the book. Good fiction, even fiction based off of true people, can responsibly portray unlikable characters.)
A lot of the criticism of this book is that the protagonist is passive, whiny, and there is not a lot of plot. Quite a few Dear America books are observation heavy, and this one was no exception. I actually didn’t mind the observations because the hardships that Polly’s family faced was actually kind of the point of the story. As for her being whiny, she was freezing to death in the winter, locust ate her entire crop, and her father was a wet noodle. Would you not complain? Isn’t that what people do in their diaries?
As for her being passive, I implore reviewers to dig deeper and think what they expected her to do. It was actually extremely realistic for a child who grew up in a religious household with a minister for a father to just passively go along with what he says, especially in the 1870’s and for a family with the amount of cabin fever (no pun intended) that the Rodgers family experienced in the Minnesota winters. If anything, I found it a little bit unrealistic with the level of criticizing she did of her father. Typically, if one has been raised like this, she would not question or think fit to condemn any choices that her parents make, especially her father. I’m just speaking from someone who grew up Baptist, being passive is fairly standard. (I say this, as someone who is still a Christian, but no longer a Baptist.)
The last and only other criticism I have of the book besides the unrealistic amount of self-awareness the main character had is yet another example of the “noble savage” trope. The main character’s best friend runs off and marries a native man. While there is nothing wrong with this in itself, I have noticed an extreme overrepresentation in Dear America books of girls starting out terrified of Natives and then eventually realizing that they are not all bad. While this is of course true, it is important to acknowledge that many settlers had absolutely valid reasons to be fearful of natives and it is irresponsible to just throw away those reasons to history. Very few children’s books I have read (ever!) even acknowledge the high level of settlers that were kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by natives. Of course, it went the other way as well, but it is an erasure to just pretended than it didn’t happen, and that any fear on the white settlers part was ONLY simple bigotry or misunderstanding of other cultures.
1. Locusts
2. Minnesota winters
3. Sea burials
4. Reverend George Rodgers!!!!!
I’ve seen a lot of intensely mixed reviews on this book. The Land of the Buffalo Bones is, to my knowledge, the only Dear America book that a protagonist that actually lived in history. Unfortunately, that means that her terrible father also really lived and did most of the things that he did in this book. I think this novel unintentionally shines light on the fine line between a religious spirit and true faith. Dr. Rodgers does literally nothing right in this entire book because he is living in a fantasy world and saying “God will provide”, but then he does not accept a salary for his job, gives away their possessions, and generally just does not do anything to provide for his family of literal nine children. (This is not a criticism of the book. Good fiction, even fiction based off of true people, can responsibly portray unlikable characters.)
A lot of the criticism of this book is that the protagonist is passive, whiny, and there is not a lot of plot. Quite a few Dear America books are observation heavy, and this one was no exception. I actually didn’t mind the observations because the hardships that Polly’s family faced was actually kind of the point of the story. As for her being whiny, she was freezing to death in the winter, locust ate her entire crop, and her father was a wet noodle. Would you not complain? Isn’t that what people do in their diaries?
As for her being passive, I implore reviewers to dig deeper and think what they expected her to do. It was actually extremely realistic for a child who grew up in a religious household with a minister for a father to just passively go along with what he says, especially in the 1870’s and for a family with the amount of cabin fever (no pun intended) that the Rodgers family experienced in the Minnesota winters. If anything, I found it a little bit unrealistic with the level of criticizing she did of her father. Typically, if one has been raised like this, she would not question or think fit to condemn any choices that her parents make, especially her father. I’m just speaking from someone who grew up Baptist, being passive is fairly standard. (I say this, as someone who is still a Christian, but no longer a Baptist.)
The last and only other criticism I have of the book besides the unrealistic amount of self-awareness the main character had is yet another example of the “noble savage” trope. The main character’s best friend runs off and marries a native man. While there is nothing wrong with this in itself, I have noticed an extreme overrepresentation in Dear America books of girls starting out terrified of Natives and then eventually realizing that they are not all bad. While this is of course true, it is important to acknowledge that many settlers had absolutely valid reasons to be fearful of natives and it is irresponsible to just throw away those reasons to history. Very few children’s books I have read (ever!) even acknowledge the high level of settlers that were kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by natives. Of course, it went the other way as well, but it is an erasure to just pretended than it didn’t happen, and that any fear on the white settlers part was ONLY simple bigotry or misunderstanding of other cultures.
April 24, 2024
the choices made by white people in this book...
May 16, 2016
I really liked the narrator. She seemed very real to me.
I despise the father. Men like that are scum in my opinion - waiting on others to care for his family?? Unable to do work because he's a minister? Please.
I despise the father. Men like that are scum in my opinion - waiting on others to care for his family?? Unable to do work because he's a minister? Please.
Read
January 15, 2024The family connection to the author in this one is really neat.
May 20, 2024
I enjoyed the Dear America series when I was little. It was fun to read another one again for the sake of my younger self.
April 2, 2025
I love these books so much!
This book was so interesting to me as I grew up in North Dakota, right on the border of Minnesota. In fact, my hometown is less than 2 hours from Hawley (Yeovil), MN, where this story takes place! And let me tell you, I've never heard of any book describing Midwest winter more accurately than this one.
"This snow does not even fall. It flings itself horizontally across the earth until it strikes some surface that forces it to rise up, then settle to form a drift." Literally, that is so painfully true, I could feel it in my bones, as could these people. They described the cold coming up through the floor, through their feet, and settling in their bones. When that cold hits, it never seems to leave. I always wondered why people agreed to settle here, and it looks like I got my answer. They were lied to or gaslit into believing this would be the best place ever. NOT. I did love growing up in the Great Plains, but boy did I wish that cold would leave in the spring. It really did hang around till May some years.
I loved the depiction of the Natives, too. I had more Native American friends sit at my lunch table in college than white people, and the racism still is prevalent today. To see a kind and welcoming depiction was heartwarming and gave me hope. I loved Jane's story, and honestly, I'm glad she went and married Osawa.
I also love how these books don't shy away from the pain of real life. I truly thought there would be no happiness in this story, and I was mostly right. But it showed the truth of the time period. Hawley was a massive failure, so showing it as anything else would be dishonest. And the lives of these people were horrible for a long time. People starved, froze to death, died of disease, and more. And these are geared toward younger audiences. It resonates with me still as an adult. I can't wait to have children to share these books with and give them the perspectives of other girls around the world and in different times from their own. Because there's still lessons to learn from them all.
This book was so interesting to me as I grew up in North Dakota, right on the border of Minnesota. In fact, my hometown is less than 2 hours from Hawley (Yeovil), MN, where this story takes place! And let me tell you, I've never heard of any book describing Midwest winter more accurately than this one.
"This snow does not even fall. It flings itself horizontally across the earth until it strikes some surface that forces it to rise up, then settle to form a drift." Literally, that is so painfully true, I could feel it in my bones, as could these people. They described the cold coming up through the floor, through their feet, and settling in their bones. When that cold hits, it never seems to leave. I always wondered why people agreed to settle here, and it looks like I got my answer. They were lied to or gaslit into believing this would be the best place ever. NOT. I did love growing up in the Great Plains, but boy did I wish that cold would leave in the spring. It really did hang around till May some years.
I loved the depiction of the Natives, too. I had more Native American friends sit at my lunch table in college than white people, and the racism still is prevalent today. To see a kind and welcoming depiction was heartwarming and gave me hope. I loved Jane's story, and honestly, I'm glad she went and married Osawa.
I also love how these books don't shy away from the pain of real life. I truly thought there would be no happiness in this story, and I was mostly right. But it showed the truth of the time period. Hawley was a massive failure, so showing it as anything else would be dishonest. And the lives of these people were horrible for a long time. People starved, froze to death, died of disease, and more. And these are geared toward younger audiences. It resonates with me still as an adult. I can't wait to have children to share these books with and give them the perspectives of other girls around the world and in different times from their own. Because there's still lessons to learn from them all.
December 28, 2021
Not sure how I missed this one as a kid. I ADORED the Dear America series as a kid, and I have collected a fair amount of the books. I do not at all remember reading this one.
To me, this was a pretty solid account of what I feel like it would be like to settle in Western MN. I cannot imagine what it would be like there in the late 1800’s. The winters are harsh there now, and I know they had to have been harder back then. This account was a good one, showing the many ups and downs a family would experience there. Also made me just think of being back home, which was nice. I knew a lot of the areas mentioned, so seeing how it was in the book vs how it is how was super interesting.
Definitely a good read, and one I would have DEVOURED as a kid.
To me, this was a pretty solid account of what I feel like it would be like to settle in Western MN. I cannot imagine what it would be like there in the late 1800’s. The winters are harsh there now, and I know they had to have been harder back then. This account was a good one, showing the many ups and downs a family would experience there. Also made me just think of being back home, which was nice. I knew a lot of the areas mentioned, so seeing how it was in the book vs how it is how was super interesting.
Definitely a good read, and one I would have DEVOURED as a kid.
August 18, 2023
The problem with Land of the Buffalo Bones isn't so much the book itself but rather its place within the rest of the series. It feels rather redundant--yet another story of of a family immigrating west, encountering "savages," experiencing hardship "settling" the land, etc. There's very little in the way of plot, and this is a slow-moving book. Yet another book where a dad's ill-advised decision to uproot his family comes at a great cost. It's immediately apparent that he had no clue what life in Minnesota would really have in store for them, despite visiting beforehand, and this entire enterprise is doomed for the start. There seems to be a reckoning that "manifest destiny" is indeed a false promise, but it's too little, too late. Returning to England is out of the question.
The most interesting aspects of the book were the main character, Polly's, relationships with her stepmother and best friend Jane. As the book progresses, she sees how much her stepmother is suffering, and it draw them closer. Jane is living with her abusive father and eventually sneaks away with one of the indigenous men who has befriended her and Polly. This book definitely toes the line of fetishizing Indigenous characters, but I can tell the author wants to convey that Polly realizes these are not "savages" but good people . . . it doesn't stop her from making some ignorant comments after Jane marries Ozawa, though.
This book was a little different because the author used her actual ancestors as the basis for the story, so that was kind of cool. As a whole, though, this was a somewhat mediocre addition to the series given that the subject matter is exhaustively covered by previous books.
The most interesting aspects of the book were the main character, Polly's, relationships with her stepmother and best friend Jane. As the book progresses, she sees how much her stepmother is suffering, and it draw them closer. Jane is living with her abusive father and eventually sneaks away with one of the indigenous men who has befriended her and Polly. This book definitely toes the line of fetishizing Indigenous characters, but I can tell the author wants to convey that Polly realizes these are not "savages" but good people . . . it doesn't stop her from making some ignorant comments after Jane marries Ozawa, though.
This book was a little different because the author used her actual ancestors as the basis for the story, so that was kind of cool. As a whole, though, this was a somewhat mediocre addition to the series given that the subject matter is exhaustively covered by previous books.
July 23, 2017
Actual rating is 3 stars for Land of the Buffalo Bones.
Thought and Plot
Mary Ann Elizabeth Rodgers was a 14 year old English girl who's preacher father convinced his family and many others from their home town to move to Minnesota, USA and start the town of New Yeovil (the name was later changed, mostly out of spite really). What he doesn't tell them is that the town hasn't even been raised from the ground yet and that there are no trees. Mary's father refuses to lift a hand to help with anything as he is a man of God and 'the lord will provide.' Let me just say that he seems to be the most useless man and I can't quite figure out what his second wife sees in him when he does stupid stuff like refuse a set salary, which almost gets his family killed for lack of food over the winter months. He refuses to do any work. He won't help with the garden. He won't help build a house. He pretty much won't do anything other then read his bible and preach. When a prairie fire nears their house, everyone frantically digs a fire break. Everyone but her father who conveniently goes off to 'warm people' and doesn't come back till much later. In order to send their mopey servant back to England, her father sells off his wife's piano (without asking might I add) and keeps his own fine writing desk and four poster bed.
Despite this, Mary loves her father (her mother died when she was fairly young) and works hard to try and make a living in the flat grass land. Her best friend Jane, she knows is having trials of her own with her mother and brother perishing during the journey leaving her to care for her drunken father. Despite repeated attempts to get her to confide in her, Jane remains tight lipped and begins seeing a local indigenous man from the reservation who takes interest in her and treats her kindly.
When Jane finally has enough of her father's abuse, she has Mary ride with her to reservation where she stays and marries the indigenous man. Her drunken father shows up at Mary's house a few days later, Mary takes her father to Jane to talk to her. Jane reveals that her father had been viciously beating her Mary's father CONTINUES to try and talk her into going home. Continuing to refuse, Mary's father is forced to go back empty handed and instead of bringing it to Jane's father's followers attention that he beat his own daughter, he let's him off with an underhanded warning to leave her at the reservation. Why? Because he wants to save his honor. bleh!
The redeeming factors of the book to me is how smartly Mary writes. She is occasionally quite witty and the idea of a failed preacher is an interesting one to me. You feel her frustration at her father's and step-mother lack of discipline towards their own children. Her half sister Laura destroys Mary's expensive paper and uses up all her waterpaints and nothing is done about it.
In Conclusion
An interesting read that will have you thoroughly displeased with Mary's useless father who allows his family to struggle for a full year without raising a hand to help them.
Thought and Plot
Mary Ann Elizabeth Rodgers was a 14 year old English girl who's preacher father convinced his family and many others from their home town to move to Minnesota, USA and start the town of New Yeovil (the name was later changed, mostly out of spite really). What he doesn't tell them is that the town hasn't even been raised from the ground yet and that there are no trees. Mary's father refuses to lift a hand to help with anything as he is a man of God and 'the lord will provide.' Let me just say that he seems to be the most useless man and I can't quite figure out what his second wife sees in him when he does stupid stuff like refuse a set salary, which almost gets his family killed for lack of food over the winter months. He refuses to do any work. He won't help with the garden. He won't help build a house. He pretty much won't do anything other then read his bible and preach. When a prairie fire nears their house, everyone frantically digs a fire break. Everyone but her father who conveniently goes off to 'warm people' and doesn't come back till much later. In order to send their mopey servant back to England, her father sells off his wife's piano (without asking might I add) and keeps his own fine writing desk and four poster bed.
Despite this, Mary loves her father (her mother died when she was fairly young) and works hard to try and make a living in the flat grass land. Her best friend Jane, she knows is having trials of her own with her mother and brother perishing during the journey leaving her to care for her drunken father. Despite repeated attempts to get her to confide in her, Jane remains tight lipped and begins seeing a local indigenous man from the reservation who takes interest in her and treats her kindly.
When Jane finally has enough of her father's abuse, she has Mary ride with her to reservation where she stays and marries the indigenous man. Her drunken father shows up at Mary's house a few days later, Mary takes her father to Jane to talk to her. Jane reveals that her father had been viciously beating her Mary's father CONTINUES to try and talk her into going home. Continuing to refuse, Mary's father is forced to go back empty handed and instead of bringing it to Jane's father's followers attention that he beat his own daughter, he let's him off with an underhanded warning to leave her at the reservation. Why? Because he wants to save his honor. bleh!
The redeeming factors of the book to me is how smartly Mary writes. She is occasionally quite witty and the idea of a failed preacher is an interesting one to me. You feel her frustration at her father's and step-mother lack of discipline towards their own children. Her half sister Laura destroys Mary's expensive paper and uses up all her waterpaints and nothing is done about it.
In Conclusion
An interesting read that will have you thoroughly displeased with Mary's useless father who allows his family to struggle for a full year without raising a hand to help them.
March 16, 2017
As a school librarian, I have noticed this series loosing its appeal to the students, but I was interested in this one specifically because the author is a Minnesota author, it's based on actual documented events and it takes place near my home.
I think that this was a very realistic take on what life was like in this era. Other reviews have criticized the father, but to me, his actions seemed authentic for that era, as did Molly's admiration and affection. We've seen characters like the reverend before in fiction such as the Poison Wood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.
The only fault I find with this book is the romanticizing of the Native characters, but that also happens often in literature. Natives are either portrayed as too horrid to exist or too good to be true.
I thought it was a good book and I know kids like the diary format. I would recommend this title, especially to students learning about Minnesota History.
I think that this was a very realistic take on what life was like in this era. Other reviews have criticized the father, but to me, his actions seemed authentic for that era, as did Molly's admiration and affection. We've seen characters like the reverend before in fiction such as the Poison Wood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.
The only fault I find with this book is the romanticizing of the Native characters, but that also happens often in literature. Natives are either portrayed as too horrid to exist or too good to be true.
I thought it was a good book and I know kids like the diary format. I would recommend this title, especially to students learning about Minnesota History.
January 6, 2013
Interesting because much of the book was written from family stories and historic manuscripts. Many of the more raw and disturbing realities of pioneer life were included. I liked the numerous references to the bugs and snakes that kept falling through the roof. Every other child/youth book about pioneers sanitizes the yuck factor, which gives a misleading idea of just how hard life was for them. Also covered were uncomfortable social issues like prejudice and abuse. All very tastefully handled. It had a certain charm with a sympathetic main character through whom you shared the struggles, made the adjustments, and learned the mental toughness and determination that was the key to survival.
December 13, 2013
I loved this story!! It's a good part in history to read about! someone traveling so far and all the mishaps and the shocking news and the end, ya that shocked me!!! It's all about this girl who is moving to the United States of America. Her dad has traveled to Minnesota and wants to live there and so do some of there neighbors. So her dad is taking them their buy ship. The ocean is a bad place to travel and lots of people get sick. They have troubling times getting their but they make it! READ the rest to find out the rest of their journey
September 4, 2015
Really enjoyed this Dear America book. It gave a very clear picture of what it was like to emigrate from England to the prairies. It did not hesitate to mention the hardships endured and did not skim any unpleasant details, which is something I appreciate since other books in this same genre (think Janette Oke books) have a habit of doing so. I also appreciated that many of the characters in this book were based of the author's ancestors. Very cool concept!
August 22, 2018
The story of an English family being persecuted for their religion and their trip and first couple of years to and in Minnesota, where it snowed, the wind blew, and grasshoppers ate the crops.
Read
June 18, 2019I LIVED B I T C H
September 5, 2025
a bit like petticoat party and west to a land of plenty
August 10, 2025
I'm not sure how it is possible for every character in a novel to be so unlikeable. The author is whiny and entitled, the little siblings are annoying, and the father drug an entire community across the Atlantic and half the Plains to a barren hellscape. The only two people I feel any sympathy for are the poor best friend who runs away to live with the nearby indigenous tribe and the stepmother who had to go along with everything because the past was the worst and she had no choice. Save your time. This is one of the weakest entries in the entire series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 16, 2021
This book was a lot darker than many others in this series. It made it feel more real, and I liked that, despite how hopeless everything was. Then come to find out the author is the great-grandaughter of the protagonist's father. And that these people /were/ all real. That made for a great twist at the end that these books normally don't have. Like the author said, she had to make up the personalities of her family, but the people, nor the things they endured.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 30, 2024
I really enjoyed this book and it really shows the difficult lives of the people originally trying to settle in places uninhabited in America and makes you appreciate some of what we have now. I also like how the native Americans are shown in this novel … we are all just people meant to be together and I wish every story of the white man and native Americans coming together had a good ending such as this one story .
May 8, 2017
Historically, it's a good book, but it is so. Or if that it will not capture the attention of most girls. The historic details and depictions are great, I don't dispute that, but there just isn't enough excitement for young readers. I'm fairly certain they would give up after the first 20+ pages unless it was required reading.
April 11, 2026
I always enjoy the diaries that have been based on the author's own family history. I know I've read this before, but it must have been a long time ago because I didn't remember some things that happened. Definitely a very serious tone to the whole story, but well worth reading if you're interested in pioneers and settlers.
January 4, 2019
This is the diary of Mary Ann Elizabeth Rodgers a English girl who came to Minnesota in 1873.It is about real people but some is made up.It is very interesting how these people had come to new country to learn how to live in a country they new nothing about.
November 10, 2020
An interesting an informative read. I'm happy the author included a picture of a "soddy" because it didn't look like what I thought they looked like.
Laura Ingalles Wilder failed to mention that along with humans, bugs & snakes and other critters lived in the soddy as well.
Laura Ingalles Wilder failed to mention that along with humans, bugs & snakes and other critters lived in the soddy as well.
September 25, 2021
I don't seem to enjoy Dear America books as much if I don't have nostalgia for them, but I actually quite liked this one. It turns out the author is actually related to the characters in this one, which added a lot to the story.
January 8, 2026
I was looking forward to one about Minnesota but this book is just one giant bitch fest about the state & the author just obviously wanted to write her own family history. It should have been about the cool friend instead
November 8, 2022
This is the best of these series. All of the characters have depth and the situation feels so real. Given what we read about how the author is connected to the story, it makes a lot of sense.
December 25, 2022
Death of a young boy, suicide, child beating, plague of locusts, killer snowstorms--not the happiest book you'll ever read.
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