Through alternating voices and a deft blend of writing styles, Allan Wolf recounts the harrowing 1846 westward wagon trip of the Donner Party that left nearly half the group dead and their name mired in historical infamy.
With Hunger as a constant companion and omnipotent narrator, the story switches perspectives among ill-fated travelers. Wolf presents each voice in its own distinctive writing style--coupled verse, diary entries, prayers to God and prose. Facing an arduous trip, George Donner assembled a group of mainly farmers and families to caravan to California; Donner then led a smaller group south on a cutoff meant to shave miles from their journey. The revised route, actually longer, was a death sentence. Survivors, trapped by the snow and seeing no other option, set to "the grisly task of harvesting the flesh and organs of their dead" for food.
Novelist-poet Wolf (The Watch that Ends the Night), using pacing that mimics the travelers' ratcheting plight, crafts a vivid story that humanizes the complicated episode it relates. By examining many travelers' stories, he coaxes a full picture from limited primary resources, a process he refers to as "narrative pointillism." Acknowledging the white presumptuousness of manifest destiny, Wolf honors the Miwok and their land, on which the Donner Party camped, as well as many of the tribal nations scarred by such wagon trips. Thoughtfully designed, ample white space evokes the bleakness of that interminable winter. This hefty novel concludes with copious backmatter, including maps, a timeline and selected biographies. Neither judgmental nor sensationalized, the narrative leaves readers to reconcile the morality of the group's decision to cannibalize their dead. An impressive, albeit woeful, slice of American history that older middle grade readers will sink their teeth into. --Kit Ballenger, youth librarian, Help Your Shelf