Three Young Pilgrims

When Bartholemew, Remember, and Mary Allerton and their parents first step down from the Mayflower after sixty days at sea, they never dream that life in the New World will be so hard. Many in their Plymouth colony won't make it through the winter, and the colony's first harvest is possible only with the help of two friends, Samoset and Squanto.

Richly detailed paintings show how the pilgrims lived after landing at Plymouth, through the dark winter and into the busy days of spring, summer, and fall. Culminating with the excitement of the original Thanksgiving feast, Three Young Pilgrims makes history come alive.

Mary, Remember, and Bartholomew are among the pilgrims who survive the harsh early years in America and see New Plymouth grow into a prosperous colony.

When Bartholemew, Remember, and Mary Allerton and their parents first step down from the Mayflower after sixty days at sea, they never dream that life in the New World will be so hard. Many in their Plymouth colony won't make it through the winter, and the colony's first harvest is possible only with the help of two friends, Samoset and Squanto.

Richly detailed paintings show how the pilgrims lived after landing at Plymouth, through the dark winter and into the busy days of spring, summer, and fall. Culminating with the excitement of the original Thanksgiving feast, Three Young Pilgrims makes history come alive.

Publishers Weekly

Using the lives of three real children who traveled on the Mayflower and lived in the Plymouth Colony--Mary, Remember and Bartholomew Allerton--Harness focuses on their experiences and ``adventures during one year, between the autumns of 1620 and 1621.'' She surrounds their story with the larger one of the Pilgrims' struggle for religious freedom and human survival, and invests these figures from the past with a vitality and accessibility that transcend the customary seasonal emphases. This is no sanitized interpretation: the death of the children's mother and her new baby is included, as are the illnesses and deaths of many of the other ``Saints''--Pilgrims--and ``strangers''--non-religious members of the settlement party. Nor is the historical information here confined to the well-paced, involving text; equally effective are the carefully researched watercolor, gouache and colored pencil paintings--possessed of a suitable rusticity, they expand the narrative with dramatic intensity. A generous inclusion of diagrams, charts and maps abounds with the kind of details and labels capable of mesmerizing youngsters for hours. This notable blend of fact and fiction deserves year-round popularity. Ages 5-10. (Sept.)

Cheryl Harness is an author-illustrator, speaker, sometime sculptor, and harmonica player. She has created many acclaimed historical picture books, including Ghosts of the Civil War, Ghosts of the White House, Ghosts of the 20th Century, Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi, and Three Young Pilgrims. She lives in Independence, Missouri, with her Scottie, Maude, and her cats, Irene and Merrie Emma.