Call of the Klondike: A True Gold Rush Adventure - Hardcover

David Meissner has travelled to more than thirty countries and is obviously no stranger to adventure. While researching this book, he hiked the Chilkoot Trail from Alaska into Canada. David is a teacher who has written more than twenty children's books.

Kim Richardson is the great-great nephew of Stanley Pearce, whose Klondike adventures inspired this book. He has travelled to five continents and otherregions of the earth. Kim is a haiku poet and works in children's publishing. He lives with his family just outside London, England.

Gr 8 Up–Stanley Pearce and Marshall Bond were adventurous young men in the summer of 1897 when they watched prospectors coming into Seattle from Canada's Northwest Territories. Loaded down with gold dust, the prospectors told of the incredible riches to be found in the Klondike. Pearce and Bond both came from mining families and felt certain that their fortunes would be made if they could convince their parents to advance them money to venture north. With the funding forthcoming, the two mounted a well-planned, swiftly mobilized expedition that would see them working at superhuman levels for nearly a year–and returning with little to show for their efforts. Coauthor Richardson is a descendant of Pearce. Using the men's letters, along with newpaper accounts, excerpts from Bond's diary, and period photographs and reproductions, the book brings immediacy to the experience of young men in extreme conditions. The writing style is engaging, the inclusion of primary-source documents seamless, and the story thoroughly engrossing. Despite the high-interest nature of the text, the syntax and spelling could prove challenging for many students because much of it was written by late-Victorians. However, with some guidance, the book will find a readership. More focused on the experience of a few specific individuals than Charlotte Foltz Jones's Yukon Gold (Holiday House, 1999), this is excellent reading not only for interest, but also for support of the Common Core Standards as it is an excellent example of text complexity. The bibliography rounds out this volume nicely. Solid fare.–Ann Welton, Grant Elementary School, Tacoma, WAα(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.