Stay Put, Robbie McAmis

by Frances G. Tunbo, Charles Shaw (Illustrator)

Overview

When a wagon train accident separates a traveling family and strands five helpless children and Grammie in the Texas wilderness of 1848, it is up to twelve-year-old Robbie to find them food and shelter and help them all survive.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780875650258
Publisher:	TCU Press
Publication date:	01/01/1988
Series:	Chaparral Books
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	10 - 13 Years

Editorial Reviews

Gr 5-7 Twelve - year - old Robbie McAmis and his family are part of a wagon train heading west. While fording a swollen stream during a storm, he and his cousins, along with their grandmother, are separated from the children's parents. The story consists of a series of adventures and overcoming mild hardships. Unfortunately, the plot is too contrived to be believable. There are food supplies, building materials, and tools in both wagons; they have two cows and some chickens; and wildlife is plentiful and seemingly easy to catch, shoot, or trap. Characterization is flat; everyone is just too good natured and resourceful in this tragic situation. Wordiness in the text causes confusion. Several times ``would of'' is used in conversation instead of the grammatically correct ``would have'' or ``would've.'' There is not enough historical data to anchor the plot in time and place; problems are too easily overcome for this to be a convincing survival story. Nancy Kewish, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Cleveland

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