MOLLIE SEES THE ELEPHANT

Miller’s debut historical novel follows a girl’s 2,000-mile journey from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City.

Nine-year-old Margaret “Mollie” Ann Reynolds and her younger sister, Sarah, were raised on their parents’ 160-acre farm outside the small town of Mexico, Missouri. It was a generally happy life until September 1853, when their father, Ransom Arnold Reynolds, fell off a barn roof and succumbed to his injuries. Without him, the farm is more than his widow and two young daughters can effectively manage. Several months after Ransom’s death, Col. William C. Masters holds a meeting in Mexico, recruiting families for an Oregon-bound wagon train that he’s organizing. Much to Mollie’s delight, her mother agrees to sell the farm and ready her small family for the arduous journey west, accompanied by Mollie’s 16-year-old friend Billy Jacobs. After months of preparation, the 40-wagon caravan heads out on the Oregon Trail on May 1, 1854. Miller has Mollie narrate this adventurous tale in two alternating voices—as an adult in 1883 and as a child in daily diary entries that she kept while on the trail. Overall, the novel focuses more on hard facts than it does on emotion, although Mollie certainly displays the exuberance of an optimistic child who’s having a life-changing experience. As such, the author offers an abundance of intriguing historical information. Col. Masters, for instance, is presented as an experienced wagon master with exacting standards; among his requirements is that wagons must be pulled by oxen, not horses: “The reason is that horses cannot flourish on the poor grass over the trail nor can they provide enough strength for the mountains we need to cross.” Miller excels at getting across this sort of detail—although it isn’t all equally riveting. Uncredited, full-color photos of campsites and landmarks are interspersed throughout the narrative.

A sometimes-engaging tale that’s loaded with trivia for students of the great Western expansion.