The Great Gold Rush Adventure

by Kyle Griffith, Jim Starr (Illustrator)

It’s 1897, and gold rush–era Seattle is bustling with fortune seekers headed to the goldfields! When errand boy Walter chases a mischievous pup named Dusty onto a steamship bound for the Klondike, he also meets Hal, an old prospector. The trio teams up for a grand adventure―from Seattle’s Miners Landing to the icy shores of Alaska to the Golden Horseshoe Saloon to a frozen landscape with promises of riches underground―risking life and limb for a chance at making their fortune. Every miner dreams of gold, but will Walter, Dusty, and Hal be the ones to strike it rich? About the Historic Site When a ship bearing two tons of gold from the Klondike docked alongside the site of Pier 57 in 1897, it triggered a gold rush that thrilled the world and led to Seattle’s establishment as a world-class city. The historical Minders Landing site, located on Seattle’s waterfront, where almost 7 million tourists visit each year, is just steps from the Seattle Aquarium and the Pike Place Market. It is home to one of Seattle’s most beloved tourist destinations, the Seattle Great Wheel, which 1 million visitors ride each year. The Great Gold Rush Adventure’s audience includes visitors and locals to the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and Western Canada, history buffs, and any child who thrills to a great adventure story!

32 pages, Hardcover

Published September 7, 2021

Reviews

[Michelle Kidwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Great Gold Rush Adventure
by Kyle Griffith
Girl Friday Productions
Bird Upstairs Books
Children's Fiction
Pub Date 07 Sep 2021


I am reviewing a copy of the Great Gold Rush Adventure through Girl Friday Productions/Bird Upstairs Books and Netgalley:


This easy to read beautifully illustrated adventure will take the reader on an adventure that they aren’t likely to forget. You will be transported back to 1897 Gold Rush Era, Seattle which at the time is bustling with fortune seekers headed to the goldfields!



While Walter an errand boy chases an adventurous pup named Dusty onto a steamship bound for the Klondike, he also meets Hal, an old prospector. Soon the trio teams up on a Great adventure from Seattle’s Miners Landing to the icy shores of Alaska to the Golden Horseshoe Saloon to a frozen landscape with promises of riches underground—risking life and limb for a chance at making their fortune. Every miner dreams of gold, but will Walter, Dusty, and Hal be the ones to strike it rich?



Not only does The Great Gold Adventure tell the fictional tale of the trio, but it is tells the historic facts telling the reader how in 1897 hen a ship bearing two tons of gold from the Klondike docked alongside the site of Pier 57 in 1897, it triggered a gold rush that thrilled the world and led to Seattle’s establishment as a world-class city. The historical Minders Landing site, located on Seattle’s waterfront, where almost 7 million tourists visit each year, is just steps from the Seattle Aquarium and the Pike Place Market. It is home to one of Seattle’s most beloved tourist destinations, the Seattle Great Wheel, which 1 million visitors ride each year.



If you’re a child looking for an adventurous read or simply a child at Heart, I highly recommend The Great Gold Rush Adventure.


Five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

[Theediscerning · Rating 3 out of 5]

It can be quite amazing what nuggets the book reviewing gods give you. I'm sitting here, 4,700 miles from Seattle, and reading a pair of books from a business drumming up self-serving puff pieces about the place. The sister volume to this is definitely on the advert side as opposed to being an actual kids' adventure read, but here we get a real dramatic story. It focuses on a kid getting drawn into the whole Klondike Gold Rush and all the drama, risk and effort that would have entailed. It's utterly unrealistic – he chases a dog that has snatched his packed lunch on to a ship, and neither get kicked off – indeed they fall in with the one old timer with a charitable enough outlook for them to form a cooperative team.

The strong sense of fantasy here has to struggle as a result to get the truth of the Gold Rush across, but I think it still succeeded. I can still see in my mind's eye the footage of the Chilkoot Trail and how everything you could possibly need had to be back-breakingly lugged up the mountains. (I hadn't realised a lot of the stuff was portaged because the shop-keepers had made up invented laws about what the gullible had to tote.) So yes, this does serve as a most educational memento of seeing that corner of the world, or as a lesson in local history for those young readers growing up there now. But it's still not perfect – it is a bit ungainly in its edutainment, and for a book whose fantasy and illustrations pitch quite young, it has a lot of text, in small font, that would be off-putting to many. Still, I can't really sniff at the pride the creators have in their location and the stories it contains. Three and a half golden twinklies from me for their efforts here.

[Emma Filbrun · Rating 5 out of 5]

We really enjoyed this book. I read it to the younger children one morning, and that evening they were relating the story to their older siblings at the dinner table. They loved the pictures; after we finished the story and read the historical notes, they wanted to go back and look at the pictures again to see the things we had missed in these incredibly detailed paintings on our first time through.
I received a review copy of this book from NetGalley, and these are my honest thoughts about it.