Momo celebrating time to read: One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome

Daddy says Momma (Sylvia), Lettie, Silas and Elijah are going to move. It is time to have their own land and not have to work for some else. There is no more slavery. It is time to be truly free. The journey will be long, but they have shelter in their covered wagon, and they will not be alone - this family group will travel with others all determined to reach Nebraska. Ten families heading West out of Mississippi to take advantage of the land promised by the Homestead Act of 1862. But food will be short, along the way small towns will charge enormous prices for basic supplies and there are dangerous rivers to cross. Luckily along the way they do pick up a young woman who is hard-working and wise. And when a dreadful catastrophe befalls the family, young Philomena is able to step in and help with their two faithful mules Charly and Titus.

All the land you want

Free

he said to me

All we got to do is go on and get it

Take what’s ours

I looked down at the paper

that didn’t say none of what he was

Any colored who want it

Come with some money too right?

I looked at his eyes

shining in the lamplight

bright

Who was I to dim their light?

To take from him what white men

masters

loss

and years of fieldwork left of him

He asked pointing down at the paper

And they even give you a wagon?

Here is what they pack: 200 pounds of flour 10 pounds of rice 5 pounds of coffee 25 pounds of sugar 1 bushel of beans 20 pounds of salt 1 bushel of cornmeal 1 keg of vinegar 100 pounds of bacon 25 pounds of dried fruit Daddy’s good rifle and gunpowder two pistols lard, candles, lye powder matches and soap frying pans and a coffeepot our old stew kettle and Momma’s sharpest knife nails one washtub A tent and blankets blankets for Charly and Titus plus their feed too even the cradle Momma wanted was packed in tight.

The journey could take four or five or even six months. This story is about the journey not the destination but readers are left with enormous hope that the family will prosper in their new home.

From where we sat we could see the lantern lighting up the cabin and imagine the warmth inside our new home in the West in Nebraska with a fire in the hearth and beds stacked with quilts Silas, Elijah, Momma and Miss Pratt inside But me and Sutter liked it best curled in close together warming each other best as we could in the tent Momma let me pitch outdoors.

There are three voices in this verse novel so you do have to pay attention at the start of each section or chapter. It is very significant that these are three women - Lettie is a young girl born after the end of slavery but also born into a time when women are expected to marry, have children, and of course have no rights and no vote. Her mother Sylvia is brave and loyal to her husband but she has to sacrifice so much to make this enormous journey to find a place her husband believes will be 'a promised land'. Philomena is a young, newly trained teacher who values her independence. She has been promised a teaching job in Nebraska and for Philomena this means she can support herself without the need for a husband.

When I was in Primary School (Elementary) here in Australia I read and loved, like so many kids of my generation, books about American pioneers such as Little House on the Prairie and all the sequels but even more I loved Children of the Oregon Trail. That goes part of the way to explaining why I simply devoured One Big Open Sky. As usual I have no idea how I came across this book and then why I added it to my 'to read' list as a title I could pop on my Kindle. I started this book on a two-hour bus and train journey and then completed it on the way home. I am happy to see the paperback edition of this book is available [9780823460625].

Publisher blurb: Three women narrate a perilous wagon journey westward that could set them free—or cost them everything they have—in this intergenerational verse novel that explores the history of the Black homesteader movement. 1879, Mississippi. Young dreamer Lettie may have her head in the stars, but her body is on a covered wagon heading westward. Her father, Thomas, promises that Nebraska will be everything the family needs: an opportunity to claim the independence they’ve strived for over generations on their very own plot of land. But Thomas’ hopes—and mouth—are bigger than his ability to follow through. With few supplies and even less money, the only thing that feels certain is danger.

This map shows their journey: