Follow the River

Adventure from beginning to end!

I love this book! It focuses on Mary Draper Ingles, a twenty three year old wife and mother of two, soon to be three young children. Mary, despite the hard ship of being a early American settler, is living a idyllic life on a settlement called Draper's Meadow in West Virginia with her husband William and two sons Thomas and George. The story takes a horrifying turn one morning, when a Shawnee Indian tribe attack the settlement and take Mary her two sons and her sister in law Bettie hostage while their husbands are out working in the fields. What follows is a heart wrenching story about how one woman's love, courage and her amazing will to live give her the strength to make the most incredible journey of her life. This book was well written, painfully realistic and perfectly detailed. I believe anyone who hears about Mary Ingles will find her story to be absolutely awe inspiring.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Good book!

In the beginning of the story, Mary Draper Ingles is a young, healthy woman who is nine months pregnant. Mary, and her husband Will, and their two kids, Georgie and Tommy, live in a house in Draper Meadows. One day Will leaves to go to work and leaves Mary and the kids at the house alone. While he is gone Shawnee Indians come and kill Mary's mother and kidnaps Mary, and the kids along with another man.
The Indians take them through trails, past rivers, all the way to their Indian camp. But before the make it to the camp, Mary gives birth on the trail to a baby girl. After she had given birth, Wildcat, the chief Indian favors Mary because she didn't make noise given birth. At the camp, Mary met a woman named Ghetel. While she is at the camp, she makes shirts for exchange of blankets. After a while of being at the camp, Wildcat wants Mary to be his wife, but she refuses. So Wildcat decides to get back at her. He takes her sons away from her and she is sold to Frenchmen. Then she is taken to the "land of big bones". After a while of being there Mary and Ghetel plan their escape. In order for them to escape, Mary has to leave her daughter with an Indian squaw.
On the journey home, Mary and Ghetel come across some difficulties. They are running out of food to eat, so they are forced to eat things that may or may not be poisonous. They also dropped their main weapon and a blanket. But they survived.
I highly recommend reading this book. I would give it 5 out of 5

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

highly recommended

This book is about a woman named mary ingles. when she is only days away from having her third child she is kidnapped by the shawnee indians. her two boys also get kidnapped with her. the indians attacked their village killing many and taking hostages. Mary and her two sons go on a treturous journey with the indians trying to survive. Mary ends up being the only one out of her family to survive the Indians and their tricks. she finds her way back to her love, william, by following the river back to her village. this book is entertaining, exciting, thrilling, and romantic. i highly recommend this novel to anyone who wants to read a well written story about how love can keep two people together even though they are so far apart.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

you've gotta check this out!

This book, Follow the River, by James Alexander Thom, is about a woman named Mary Ingles, happily married with two children, plus one on the way, was twenty-three when Shawnee Indians attacked her settlement, took captives, and left dead bodies. Mary was among the captives.
While on their long journey to the Shawnee settlement, Mary was planning escape. She kept in mind that she belonged to Will, her husband, and only Will. She refused to be the squaw of anyone else. She built trust among the Indians and when she knew they trusted her, she slips away into the deadly wilderness, following the river, on the long journey back to Will.
I liked this book because I loved Mary's spirit and hope, plus it was greatly detailed. I think James Alexander Thom is a great author!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

An unbelievable journey!

I could not put this book down. Hard to believe it is a true story.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Great hsitorical fiction!

This was a very good, very descriptive book about survival and the sheer strenth and determination of a woman. However, I was also disappointed by the cover. Mary looked nothing like that, I'm sure.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Highly recommended!

Very good book based on true events. Brave pioneers that struggled to survive and make a good life in new territory. Interesting as well as keeps you interest.

repetitive

This was a book group selection, I would never have chosen it myself. The first part where the woman is abducted by the raiding indians was fine. The escape was fine. The long, long, LONG walk home was beyond tedious! It was also unbelievable that two women, barefoot, in late Autumn, could walk a thousand miles in six weeks, fording raging rivers, climbing mountains, with no real sense of where they were going, with no food and nothing to protect them from the elements. As I said it would not be my choice but that's what a reading group is for.

Awesome!!!

BEST book Ever! Will be reading more of his books.

Follow the river

What a wonderful story of survival, amazing courage, and determination. Takes you back to a time in America when our freedom wasnt yet our own. I have read it a couple times and am looking forward to read it again!

My favorite book

You will really appreciate this book if you live along the Ohio river. Sometime sit on the bank and try to imagine what she did.

This is a really good book!!!

Follow the River is a book for young adult readers about the real life story of Mary Ingles. It is a facinating account of the life of one of the first settlers in WV. It gives a clear picture of life during frontier times, and showcases one of the bravest women in history. However, be forewarned; this is NOT Little House on the Prarie.James Alexander Thom has written many books for young adult readers about frontier life in early America. He is able to bring these characters to life and make the reader feel what it would be like to live that way. In Follow the River we learn about a pioneer woman who was kidnapped and forced to live with the Shawnee tribe that stole her and her children from their home. She faces more hardships than anyone these days could imagine, including losing her children, but she manages to stay alive and return home. During her time with the indians, Mary finds an inner strength to keep her dream of getting home to her husband ,alive. She also learns there is good and bad in ALL cultures.This book has some really gory parts, so if you are sensitive to that kind of thing, you may want to pass this one up. I thought it made the book more realistic. Life at that time was not an episode of Little House on the Prarie. As the old Dutch woman in the book proves, the trials these people faced were enough to push some to the brink of insanity. Some, like Mary Ingles,found an inner strength to keep going. I would highly recommend this book. It is inspirational to see the kind of ancestors we have. It will be especially interesting to readers from Virginia and West Virginia where the book takes place.

highly recommend!

when i read this, i try to imagine if i would have been able to make it back my simply "following the river"
Thom goes deep into this historical fiction, where the facts surrounding the story come from distant family members who had this story told to them over the years.
If you love stories of peoples lives, you will love this book.

Very good book

This book will make you appreaciate having a warm bed at night.

Really really really loved this book. One of my all time favorites. I highly recommend it.

Buy this book!

Started off promising but lagged at the end!

I bougt this like all the other suckers that read these unrealistic reviews. Dont get me wrong it started off promising but about halfway it became a little redundant. It was like the author didnt want to end it so he wrote the same five to six chapters over and over again. At the end i felt like i was reading a twighlight novel. Defintely a one time red on day that u have nothing to do.

One of the best books I have ever read!

I didn't realize this was a true story until the end when I read the author's notes. This is just an amazing story. It shows the grit and determination people have and what they can endure when they have to. The author did his due diligence as well and researched thoroughly. If you start this book, you will not be able to put it down. This should be recommended reading in high schools.

Great book

Loved the story...wholesome and easy to read. Got so involved with Mary's trials, cried alot, she is such a strong woman. So glad I bought this. Will read it again

Wonderful book

I first read this book 22 years ago. I was 14 years old and it began my love of history. I have since read this book seven times. James Alexander Thom paints an image of what Mary Ingales Drapers life that draws a reader in. Wonderfully descriptive book about a time before the U.S.A. was the U.S.A.

Encouraging

Follow the River is an amazing and inspirational story. Mary Ingles is a determined and courageous person. This story told the true hardships of the early settlements, and the decisions that one had to make in order to survive. This is the true story of Mary Ingles. If you like books that will make you weep and at the same time have some suspense in them then this is the perfect book for you. This book has many moments where you just want to break down and cry for the person in the story. There are other moments where you are at the edge and don't know what to expect from the story. Follow the River is based on the true ordeal of Mary Ingles and tells of the wilderness of the world back in the 1700's. This book also has parts that are boring and you just want to skip them, so if you are one of those people who don't have patience don't even pick this book up. There is also a little rated R parts they're not so bad but just warning you in case you don't like these kind of books. Like I said this book is not what I expected it to be and surprised me at the end, which I did not like at all. Since the ending changed my perspective I give this book a 7/10. Except for the ending this book is really good. READ IT!!!