“Stranded: A Story of Frontier Survival”
By Matthew P. Mayo (Five Star Publishing)
Janette Riker, her father, and two brothers leave their Missouri home in the summer of 1849 to find a new life in Oregon. They make camp in a grassy valley at the foot of the Rocky Mountains as food supplies dwindle three months into their journey. The men leave Janette with the wagon while they go to hunt buffalo. They do not return. This is the beginning to Stranded: A Story of Frontier Survival by award-winning author Matthew P. Mayo. Stranded is a finalist for the High Plains Book Award in the Young Adult division.
The author explains in historical notes at the end of the novel that his main character is based on a real person named Janette Riker who survived alone during a winter on the Oregon Trail. Native Americans found her in the spring and took her to a white settlement. After learning more about Janette Riker’s story, the author was inspired to write a fictional account of this young woman in the form of a journal.
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One strength of this novel is the suspense created when Janette is faced with danger, either due to weather, wildlife, or her own foolishness. The beginning of a diary entry hints that Janette has just narrowly survived some ordeal and she is now recording the details in her journal. Anticipation makes the pages fly by. The reader’s heart speeds up as Janette barely escapes the fangs of a hungry wolf. Hands grip the book more tightly as a mountain lion attacks her sod shelter and she grapples with her shotgun. Breath is held as she manages to stay above water after an ice dam breaks near her camp and she is swept downstream.
It may be a challenge for young readers to engage with a novel that is set in the mid-19th century American West. Survival stories are popular with young adults, but historical fiction can be a tough sell. Readers who discover this book will be rewarded with a powerful story of courage and resilience.
Andrea Doles is the librarian at Ben Steele Middle School.