Brides, Midwives and Widows

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-In these series entries, readers meet some of the hearty souls who conquered the Western frontier. Brides introduces the women who were bought, bribed, or simply went West for adventure. Native American women were the first wives of trappers and miners; Chinese and Japanese women were sold into slavery and prostitution in their own countries and exported to the U.S. When educated females arrived, they provided the first accounts of frontier life in the form of diaries and journals. Medical care was often administered by neighbor women who came to be known as midwives. Loggers tells the tale of the men and machines who settled and civilized the West; clearing virgin wilderness; building railroads; and making way for ranching, farming, and other small industry. Both books provide excellent overviews of life in 19th-century America. Lively descriptions, journal entries, and personal accounts make for exciting reading; good-quality, black-and-white and full-color reproductions and photographs appear throughout.-Julie Halverstadt, Douglas Public Library District, Castle Rock, CO