All The Stars in the Sky: The Santa Fe Trail Diary of Florrie Mack Ryder

As with several other books in the series, this one deals with a young girl moving West, this time along the Santa Fe Trail in 1848. As with the other similar books, this one describes some of the hardships families had to endure during their travel to the west, and how some of them never survived the journey.

This book diverges in that it deals with the Santa Fe trail, a trail which was perhaps a little more "worn in" than the Oregon trail. At the time of the story not a lot of families were following that trail; it was mainly for traders going to Santa Fe. Florrie has to make the journey with her mother and her new step-father.

When she arrives in Santa Fe the book covers the different type of culture in the city, mainly due to its heavily Mexican influence. I also like the part about Florrie making a friend of a young Indian girl, showing for once that not all Indians were the "blood-thirsty savages" so typified in other (non-Dear America) books.

At first I thought the book might just be rehash of another, but it was different enough to make it worth reading. As always, there is a good historical section added at the end of the novel.

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