Hard Gold: The Colorado Gold Rush of 1859: A Tale of the Old West [Library Binding]

This is only the second book I've read by this author. I admire the writing style. His books are absorbing and highly entertaining. The character of Early, a fourteen year old boy is accurate and effortless. The young girl, Lizzy is precocious and bucks against the constraints of being a woman and acting "ladylike." The description of the prairie and barren heat sodden dessert enhance the feeling you are there beside Early.

I love a good historical fiction novel. T he gaggle of people travelling is rooted in the mid 1800's and steeped in the get rich dreams of the Gold Rush. The rush of people from the east settling the west in their drive for riches shows the price that was paid. From burying loved ones on the way, to having hard won gold stolen, to a buffalo stampede and people facing the possibility of losing their farms due to greed and progress (the railroad) are all portrayed and plunk readers down in the era of westward expansion and the Colorado Gold Rush.

Early experiences a heck of an adventure. Travelling in a wagon train to Colorado he gts his first sweetheart and learns how to fend for himself without his parents. The book is packed full of fiction adventure and historical fact.
The only drawback was I listened to an audio version and was deprived of artwork that could have added to the educational and entertainment of reading about the well told fictional history. Read for entertainment or to had to a section of history taught in a classroom.. the book is highly recommended.
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Avi is one of those writers who has authored so many books about such a wide variety of subjects. I always marvel at how he is able to come up with yet another topic for a book. My library has a fairly large collection of his work, yet I have read only a few of them. A few weeks ago I picked up Hard Gold by Avi at the public library. My school doesn't own this one, and since it is historical fiction, it was calling my name. Set during the mid 1800's during the Colorado Gold Rush, I was able to learn a great deal about a topic in history I have heard of but never studied or read about.

As the story unfolds, Early is just fourteen years old, growing up on a farm in Iowa. His family is struggling to pay their mortgage due to the recent drought. The railroad company makes an offer to purchase their farm for a good sum of money, yet Early's father won't give in, hoping to pass down the farm to his oldest son, Adam. Early's uncle, Jess, who was raised by Early's parents, is older than Early, but more like a brother than an uncle. He has grand dreams of moving west to Pike's Peak to find gold. By doing so, he will be able to pay off the farm debt. No one is surprised when they find a note from Jess one morning telling them goodbye. However, they are surprised to find that the bank in town was robbed a few days before that, and that Jess is being considered a suspect. Now that he has run off, the authorities are sure he is the thief. Early can't get Jess out of his head and makes his own plans to head west. Things are much harder on the trail than he thought possible, but he makes the best of the situation, enjoying his time with Lizzie, the daughter of the family he was hired to help along the trail. There are many adventures along the way, as well as a bit of humor. Early still has one goal: reaching his uncle, despite what he is hearing from others when he starts asking after him.

This book included actual photographs and sketches of various aspects of life along the westward trail and the Colorado Gold Rush. Including these visual aids will be such a help to tween readers who may not be able to envision certain elements of this story because it is so different form our lives now. Sometimes historical fiction seems too difficult - so full of information and set in such an unfamiliar time period - that my students give up on it easily. Hard Gold is a very fast read and truly targeted at my fourth and fifth grade readers who should be able to understand the story and enjoy this period in our nation's history. While the ending seemed a bit predictable to me as an adult reader, it was still satisfying, and my student readers may not have the same feeling about the ending

In this book the Wittcomb family must pay their mortgage, when suddenly a carriage pulled up at their doorstep with life changing news, because of this news Early Wittcomb and his uncle Jesse must go to the Colorado mountains While their farm is in the lower east side of Texas.As they are put in harm's way they must fight off disease, no food, and contaminated water. Early and Jesse have set off on a journey that may change the way they live their lives forever. All this for Gold? Read the book and find out what happens on the journey they have taken, what the life changing news was, and all the rest action packed parts of this amazing story.

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