All the Stars in the Sky: The Santa Fe Trail Diary of Florrie Mack Ryder is a historical fiction book in Scholastic's Dear America series. It was published in September 2003 and was written by Megan McDonald, her only book for the series.
Dedication
- "For Regina Shipman Haynes"
Book description
- "Camp No.12
Mother and I were bent over the cooking fire... when Jem called out to us. We turned our eyes to heaven and saw a magnificent rainbow. The sky was nearly on fire with the colors. Jem asked Mother, "Is it true there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? I'd like to think I could climb that hill and discover a pot of riches there." "Alas, the end of the rainbow is always much farther away than it seems," Mother told him. I daresay my own mother is beginning to sound like the fortune-teller. "I think the end of the rainbow must be all the way in California," said Jem, "and I aim to find it someday." Mother laughed. Her laugh... was as welcome as a change of clothes on the prairie. The trail, like a rainbow, leads us west. And west. And westward still."
Plot
Characters
- Main article: List of All the Stars in the Sky characters
Author
- Main article: Megan McDonald
Acknowledgements
- "Many, many thanks go to historian (and sister) Melissa McDonald; expert librarian and reader Carol Edwards; Mary Ellen Grant of Olathe, Kansas; Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site in La Junta, Colorado; the Santa Fe Trail Center, Larned, Kansas; Nancy Brown at the Center for Southwest Research, Zimmerman Library, Albuquerque, New Mexico; the Kansas State Historical Society; the Governor Bent House and Museum, Taos, New Mexico; the Kit Carson Home and Museum, Taos, New Mexico. I'm also indebted to historian Marc Simmons's seminal research on women of the Santa Fe Trail."
References
External links
- Interview with Megan McDonald about All the Stars in the Sky at Scholastic
- All the Stars in the Sky Discussion Guide at Scholastic
- All the Stars in the Sky Booktalk at Scholastic
See also
