ACROSS THE PLAINS IN THE DONNER PARTY

In the spring of 1846, 32 settlers left Springfield, Illinois, bound for California; only 18 of them survived the crossing. In just a few words listeners will think narrator Colleen Delaney must actually be the young girl telling of her family's westward crossing just three years before the Gold Rush. Delaney's soft voice for the young author's simple language and old-fashioned vocabulary transports us to another time and to her nightmare of hardship and death. A cruel winter caught the original party and some others in the Sierra Mountains, where 42 died of starvation and cold. Some ate human flesh. The desperate and whispery expression Delaney gives to the child's account makes it so personal we can feel her hunger and emotional pain. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2008]