In her first novel for young adults, Shackleton’s Stowawayauthor Victoria McKernan captures both the peril and the beauty of the frontier West. This action-filled book is engaging, accurate, heartbreaking and hopeful.
In The Devil’s Paintboxwe travel from a ruined Kansas homestead to the logging camps outside Seattle, WA in 1865. Aiden and Maddy Lynch are the 16 & 13 year old survivors of a family wiped out by the harsh homesteading life and when the story opens they are slowly starving to death after a long, frigid winter. An unlikely savior appears to them in the form of Jefferson J. Jackson, who is searching for strong men to work in the lumber camps and help drive a wagon train of settlers to the Pacific Northwest. This chance for a new life is fraught with dangers, not the least of which is actually surviving the grueling, months long passage across the frontier West. Although life is hard, both Maddy and Aiden start to thrive in their new life, but too soon disaster and loss find them. When smallpox, “the devil’s paintbox” threatens the Native community Aiden has befriended, his loyalties, courage and wits are severely tested.
I really enjoyed this action-packed historical novel. The cast of “refugees” making their way West was colorful and engaging; the adventures, hardships and challenges they faced were accurately depicted; and most of all watching Aiden grow into a calm, confident and strong young man was empowering. The storytelling and character development caught me from the beginning and kept me engaged throughout and the strong sense of place and realism made losing myself in this frontier world enjoyably easy.
- Posted by Cori