Cabin on Trouble Creek

by Jean Van Leeuwen

Overview

After clearing enough forest to build a log cabin for their new home, Pa returns east to fetch the rest of the family, while young brothers Daniel and Will stay behind to watch the land. Pa had planned to return within six weeks . . . but something must have gone wrong. Now the boys must survive the winter with only a few supplies and their ability to invent and improvise. But are they alone in the woods? Jean Van Leeuwen's engrossing novel of pioneer survival is based on a true incident.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780142411643
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	11/13/2008
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.70(d)
Lexile:	660L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Jean Van Leeuwen is the author of more than fifty children's books, including picture books, Easy-to-Read books, and middle-grade fiction. She has won numerous awards, among them the William Allen White Award, the South Carolina Children's Book Award, the Massachusetts Honor Book Award, and the Washington Irving Children's Choice Award, as well as many ALA Notable Book citations.

Her own two children were the inspiration for the Oliver and Amanda Pig stories, as well as several others, including Dear Mom, You're Ruining My Life. Many of her other books have grown out of her long-time interest in American history. Her historical picture books include Going West, which was cited as an IRA Teachers' Choice and Across the Wide Dark Sea, selected by the New York Public Library as one of the "100 Titles for Reading and Sharing." She has written historical fiction for older readers as well. Her Bound for Oregon was a Child Study Association Book of the Year, and Cabin on Trouble Creek was nominated for children's Choice awards in eight states. 

Ms. Van Leeuwen now lives in another small town north of New York City with her husband, Bruce Gavril. She has two grown children, David and Elizabeth, and a young grandchild, who will surely inspire more stories. 

Editorial Reviews

Trouble Creek was the site of a massacre ten years before. Now, 11-year-old Daniel and his younger brother Will are left there all alone to finish a cabin while their father returns to Pennsylvania for the rest of the family. Ohio in 1803 was one big forest, and Van Leeuwen effectively captures its various moods-claustrophobic, lonely, scary, and exciting. When Pa doesn't return and the boys spend the whole winter there, the story becomes a tale of survival, the boys relying on their own instincts and the help of Solomon, an Indian passing through. He teaches them about snares and traps, poisonous and healing plants, and especially how to really see-how to stay alert to the dangers and the promise of the forest. Based on a true incident, this is a fine story of wilderness, family, absence, and new strengths found. It works as both a solid historical novel and as an exciting survival tale. (author's note) (Fiction. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews