All the Stars in the Sky

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

• Florrie Mack Ryder

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