Seeds of Hope: The Gold Rush Diary of Susanna Fairchild

Dear America

by Kristiana Gregory

A diary account of fourteen-year-old Susanna Fairchild's life in 1849, when her father succumbs to gold fever on the way to establish his medical practice in Oregon after losing his wife and money on their steamship journey from New York. Includes a historical note.A diary account of fourteen-year-old Susanna Fairchild's life in 1849, when her father succumbs to gold fever on the way to establish his medical practice in Oregon after losing his wife and money on their steamship journey from New York.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Middle Grade, Childrens, Young Adult, Diary

186 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2001

About the author

Kristiana Gregory grew up in Manhattan Beach, California, two blocks from the ocean. She's always loved to make up stories [ask her family!], telling her younger siblings whoppers that would leave them wide-eyed and shivering. Her first rejection letter at age ten was for a poem she wrote in class when she was supposed to be doing a math assignment. She's had a myriad of odd jobs: telephone operator, lifeguard, camp counselor, reporter, book reviewer & columnist for the LA Times, and finally author.

Her award-winning books include STALKED, which earned the 2012 Gold Medal for Young Adult Mystery from Literary Classics and is hailed as "historical fiction with a thrilling twist." KIRKUS calls it "an atmospheric confection that will thrill YA readers ... Gregory achieves a realistic, rich atmosphere with insightful details about the immigration process and New York tenements in the early 1900s." Now available on Kindle and in paperback.

JENNY OF THE TETONS [Harcourt] won the Golden Kite Award in 1989 and was the first of two-dozen historical novels for middle grade readers. Several of Kristiana's titles are now available on Kindle including "Curiously Odd Stories: Vol. 1 and Vol. 2" with the celebrated 'Paper Monument', a futuristic book-banning with horrific consequences.

BRONTE'S BOOK CLUB [Holiday House] is set in a town by the sea and is inspired by the girls' book club Kristiana led for several years.

Her most recent title with Scholastic's Dear America series is CANNONS AT DAWN, a sequel to the best-selling THE WINTER OF RED SNOW, which was made into a movie for the HBO Family Channel.

New re-releases in ebooks and paperback on Amazon:
**PRAIRIE RIVER SERIES #1-4
**ORPHAN RUNAWAYS: THE PERILOUS ESCAPE TO BODIE
**CABIN CREEK MYSTERIES #7: THE PHANTOM OF HIDDEN HORSE RANCH
**THE WAITING LIGHT: CLEMENTINE'S STORY -- originally titled "My Darlin' Clementine" [Holiday House] this riveting historical mystery takes place in an Idaho mining camp of 1866, and was Idaho's representative for the 2010 National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Library of Congress.

Kristiana and her husband have two adult sons, and live in Idaho with their two golden retrievers. In her spare time she loves to swim, walk, hike, read, and hang out with friends. She's trying to learn to knit, but isn't yet having much success.

Check out Kristiana's blogs at http://notesfromthesunroom.blogspot.com/ for behind-the-scenes stories about her books, and with photos from her childhood.

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always find these books interesting. Even when I have no interest in the period that the book is about I will pick it up anyway and fall in love with whatever the topic happens to be. This particular book is about the gold rush in California and a family's experience during six months of panning for gold. The Fairchild family sail from New York to Oregon City around the Horn and along the way they lose both their beloved mother and their life savings. So when they reach San Francisco Bay and learn of all the money to be had in gold they decide to stay and try their luck. I can't believe the girls' dad would leave them for a month on their own in a mining town. Anything could have happened to them and had this not been a young adult novel then something probably would have happened. I also liked that this author always puts a little love story into a tale of hardships. Also enjoyed the fact that this Susanna is the cousin that Hattie Campbell talks about in her book about the Oregon Trail.

[Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s been a few weeks since I finished this book, but I still wanted to write a review about it because I feel it made a lasting impression on me. This is one of a few Dear America books I’ve read now, and I must say this one is worth your time! I really appreciated how the author of this book didn’t shy away from the reality of life in the Wild West. While Dear America is a children’s series, this author didn’t hesitate to include scenes about hangings, murder, disease, surgery, and more, in an appropriate manner for children of course. While not necessarily a graphic book, the author does give the reader a real sense of what it would have been like to travel to the lawless west and live in very rough conditions.

Another bonus for this book is that the author does a good job writing the journal entries without too much dialogue. I don’t mind all that much when Dear America books use dialogue, but it sure does make it feel like a more authentic diary when they don’t!

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.2 stars because, this book had a lot of cliffhangers when we had to reach out goal and couldn't go on. A lot of fears and there's a lot going on, like murders. But overall, it was pretty decent.

[Anslee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am SICK of the anti-corset propaganda that so many historical fiction books have!!! Sick of it!!!!!!!!

[Peyton Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Dear America entry was not square in the middle but only slightly above it. It was more character driven than some of the others that I have read recently have been, but only slightly. Most of the character depth I got in this one was from the ups and downs (mostly downs) of life as both a western migrant and mining family, or very specifically the squabbles between our narrator Susanna and her older sister Clara. It was a better balance between character-focus and history-focus than I have seen in many of the earlier books. However, it still felt somewhat lackluster. I try to give it some leeway, because what I do appreciate about this author's diaries is that they don't record a lot of dialogue, which is probably more accurate to what an actual diarist would do. But it doesn't make for good storytelling always, and I think lends to the lack of character development. And once again, I felt the love story (which I remember adoring when I was younger - truly believed it to be the epitome of historical romance LOL) was trite and hollow. I got to know Sam the least out of most of the central characters and saw no growth over time, and will forever feel iffy about teenagers courting in children's books regardless of how historically accurate it is. But, this was certainly a solid addition to the series, honest in the ups-and-downs of 49er life.

And one final note - I see you, Kristiana Gregory, connecting three of your four Dear America's together. No coincidence that your 1777-1781 character's married name is Abigail Campbell, then six-and-a-half decades later we meet Hattie Campbell, and she's cousins with Susanna Fairchild and they both journeyed west around the same time. Clever touch...

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn't get enough of this gold rush diary! Now I know how to stake a claim, should I ever find a gold-filled cave...

[Amelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book because it was very interesting and pulled me into the book right away. And this book was those kind of books where their was a murder on the lose and they have to try to find it and those kind of books pull me in right away and gets me interested. But, the thing I did not like about this book is that I did not really know what the setting really was because it never really said it but eventually I got the hang of it but it started jumping to one setting yo another setting before I knew what was going on. (The setting in the beginning was they were on a ship). Anyway, so I gave this book 4 STARS!

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

It certainly wasn't a bad book, but didn't leave much of an impression on me.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this and would have LOVED it as a kid. Susanna and her family leave Missouri for Oregon, deciding to take ship out of NYC rather than join the overland Oregon Trail because her father had always wanted to take an ocean voyage. During the long voyage around the Horn, the mother is washed overboard leaving a mourning Susanna and her sister and father behind. Eventually they arrive in Panama City finding thousands of men waiting for ships to take them to the Gold Fields. Seems the Gold Rush had started at Sutter's Mill, CA while they were at sea.

Susanna's father is bitten by the gold bug, and on arrival in San Francisco, the family joins those heading into the hills. What follows is a description of the 6 months Susanna and her family spend in a mining camp, their hardships and successes. Ultimately the family does continue on to Oregon and settle.

Written in the form of a diary, the tale flows easily and quickly, painting a picture that though tame, definitely touches on the darker and more difficult parts of being in a mining camp filled with prospectors crazed with gold lust. An epilogue provides more historical background though still relatively superficial.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really wish these books were around when I was younger. I've always loved history and when told through diary format it just thrills my inner 12 year old heart. This one was set during the Gold Rush period, which is a part of history that I'm not super familiar with except for the basics, but would love to know more about.

[Edge · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is also one of my favorites!! I read this as an ebook book a year or two ago (maybe more 🤭) but I totally remember it as being really good!! Amazing story! 🤩

[Sarah Calvert · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was my first dear america book. it was okay I just was not interested in the topic so it took me way too long to read. also it's so brutal omg

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I wouldn’t call Seeds of Hope a sequel to Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie, Gregory does connect the two books together by having the Fairchilds be related to the Campbells. It isn’t necessary to have read Prairie, of course. The inclusion of the Campbells is more of a bonus to readers who have read Gregory’s Oregon Trail entry first.

This is another of my favorite Dear America books (I really am a fan of Gregory), partly because of the purple cover, partly because it’s well-written and goes into a lot of historical detail. I learned more about the Gold Rush in this book then I did in Rae Carson’s Walk on Earth a Stranger, which is also about the Gold Rush. The book definitely doesn’t pull any punches; it opens with a death, and includes amputation, hangings, betrayal, and theft, as well as veiled clues about prostitution. What I like most about the Dear America series is that it does not sugar-coat or hide anything that could have happened in that time period, it merely mentions it in ways that are appropriate for children.

The novel also conveys how atypical and dangerous it was for two young women to be on their own during the Gold Rush, yet also takes the time to describe not only the kindness of strangers, but also the steps Susanna and Clara took to protect themselves. And there’s never any underlying threat that makes one worry about their safety throughout the book; again, this is a book for children, so while it’s mentioned what Susanna and Clara do to protect themselves from prowlers and thieves, there’s never anything too dark that is hinted at.

I have a feeling that Gregory’s Dear America books will be the stand-outs for me in this series; she seems to have achieved the knack of writing memorable characters and conveying the historical time period accurately and interestingly. Seeds of Hope is another great addition to Dear America, one I remember fondly.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading all the Dear Americas and Royal Diaries (20/63)

I really enjoyed this one! We had to have a plausible reason for a young girl to be involved in the gold rush, and I think we got one - her family was emigrating to Oregon when it happened, so dad said detour! It was hard to believe he would leave his daughters alone in the mining town, but I think that's part of the book, too - what people will do out of greed. Susanna and Clara are resourceful and caring, and I loved reading about how they tried to make a home in such a rough and tumble world. I appreciated that the author talked about other experiences, like miners who came from outside the US and how they were treated.
Okay, and thanks to other reviewers - I totally didn't notice this while I was reading, but her cousin is the Hattie Campbell of the Oregon Trail DA, and their ancestor is likely the Abigail of the Revolutionary War one - that's cute.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Kristiana Gregory's other two Dear America books, so I was surprised that I didn't enjoy this one as much. It wasn't bad. But it wasn't great either.

(Also—the father leaving his two teenage daughters alone for weeks surrounded by sketchy mining men?? He totally would NOT have done that in real life, if he were the good father the author portrayed him as. Anyway. Just had to get that off my chest.)

[Carri · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

Another childhood re-read. I loved this series when I was younger and would definitely recommend it to girls today. It’s a fun way to get kids interested in reading and history.

[Kat Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a solid 4.5 star book until the last like 30 pages, which is becoming a familiar refrain with Kristiana Gregory's books. Why she is hellbent on shoehorning a romance--that almost always leads to marriage--into these books? The move has frankly gotten tiresome and predictable, especially since her books are usually among the best written otherwise. Why can't a young girl of 14 (15 when the book ends) simply have some adventures without forcing a romance?

This problem is especially obvious compared to the best part of the book: when Susanna and her sister Clara are left alone for several weeks and must learn to take care of themselves. They are some of the only young women in an incredibly rough mining community, and the danger would have been very real (which Gregory makes clear in an age-appropriate way). Gunfire erupts in the saloons. There's rampant thievery. There's also dangers in the physical world: mountain lions and grizzly bears prowl in the night.

Susanna's dad has to be one of the most annoying and worst parents in the series to date. Like, we get that you're having a crisis because your wife died, but do you really think panning for gold is going to be better than . . . being a doctor? Spoiler: guess who winds up going back to their OG profession? He's also dumb enough to trust a friend to take significant amounts of gold from his mine claim back to the girls on his behalf. How do you think that went?

Still, Gregory paints a vivid picture of life in this town. It's rough and exciting, reminding me a lot of a short story I read by Claire Vaye Watkins. It touches on the racism and violence "foreigners" were subjected to, although perhaps not enough. I also really enjoyed how her relationship with her sister is portrayed. Too often the sibling dynamics are really weird--too much overkill of finding a sibling annoying, or barely any mention of a sibling at all. The sisters have some disagreements, but they really band together to support their father and each other in this new set of circumstances and after the unexpected loss of their mother.

Dead parent count: Their mother is literally swept overboard--a dramatic return to the OG Dear America books where the deaths were more frequent and wilder

[Jahnavi · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Dear America" is such a great series for historical fiction lovers. I like how these book portrays the lives of young girls during major historical events in the US, that too written like a personal diary of the main character which makes it even more heartfelt.

The story itself is truly beautiful. At first we see Susanna's family going through a time which results in great grief. They are also on board a ship going to Oregon where they are relocating to. They hope to meet their relatives there. Then we see them changing there plans altogether which is such a great example for the unpredictable way life is.

Susanna with her family now lives through a historical event in American history : The Gold Rush time after the President announces the presence of gold in the newly acquired California territory. Americans from every part of the country and even foreigners rushes to there. They leave their true professions to become miners and try their luck to get huge wealth in less time. It is Susanna's father who was previously a doctor who becomes a miner for this sake.

This decision of her father forced Susanna and her sister to go to California instead of Oregon as they had previously planned. At California the girls are faced with many hardships as well as many promising and joyful happening.

Reading this book will help readers to understand this historical event in a much better way. I liked this book because it taught me very much about a historical event which was not that well known for me.


Happy reading:)

Jan

[Sarah Anne Peterson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fluffy. Underwhelming. Zero character development. Other than the mildly intriguing imagery, this Dear America book doesn't have much going for it.

I appreciated all of Kristiana Gregory's scene-setting at the mining camp, and felt like she transported me to that place and time, but she just didn't deliver in other aspects I really crave from a book. Susanna's diary only detailed a chain of events ("this happened, then this happened, then this happened...") while remaining one dimensional the entire time. Sure, she displayed some emotions, but I never learned how the events shaped her as a person. Character evolution is essential for a great Dear America book.

Oh, and a word with Susanna's dad: why in the HECK did you leave your teenage daughters in a new mining camp ALONE surrounded by strange men and dangerous animals for weeks at a time?! How is that historically accurate? IS it historically accurate? Regardless, as much as I wanted to like the man, I kind of lost respect for him at that point.

[Alexa Blart, Library Cop · Rating 3 out of 5]

A perfectly fine addition to Dear America. Not as compelling, to me, as some of this author’s previous works (which include a few of my favorites, like the Valley Forge and Oregon Trail books), but it certainly takes the gold (pun intended) on Most Horrific Death of a Family Member, a category for ranking Dear America books that I just invented. (Gregory, I’ve noticed, is never one to spare an opportunity to twist the knife when it comes to horrifying historical mishaps: not enough that our fourteen-year-old diarist and her sister watched their mother get swept overboard in a storm, she also had newly discovered she was pregnant with a new sibling.)

Apart from that, Gregory as usual does a nice job balancing conveying historical information with telling a human story about a (fictional) young woman thrust into a very strange new world. There’s a lovely cast of supporting characters, some observations of the racism at work in California Territory during the Gold Rush, and, of course, a horrifying nineteenth-century amputation—really, what more can one ask of Dear America?

[Eleanor Decker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this one! I thought it was very sweet, and had some of the best sibling relationships of the series. Susanna and Clara understanding ‘girl things’ and having a dynamic where they bickered but were always each other’s first comfort and counsel was lovely, and I thought Susanna and Sam’s relationship was very appropriate and grounded in real tenderness. Captain Clinkingbeard was kind of weird, I don’t know what he was there for, and I felt like the amount of gold people were finding may have been unrealistic, but I liked the depictions of grief, and the scandal with the saloon lady. I was a bit perplexed why Jesse Blue wasn’t also the one who stole Susanna’s money pouch, and why nothing ever happened with the random miner who did. I also thought he’d be involved in the murder plot, but nope.

[Emory · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Dear America. Having daughters of my own made me want to pick up the remaining books in the series that I never read in my childhood. I remember being 14 or 15 and worrying that I wouldn’t enjoy these books as an adult. Well, rest assured, little me, they still hold up!

This installment is set during the gold rush. I’m surprised I haven’t read it yet because I love a good old West story, and I adored The Ballad of Lucy Whipple when I was a kid. I really liked all the characters in this book and it’s interesting how their plights struck me even more as an adult than they probably would have as a kid. There were some parts that were laugh out loud funny as well. As a teenager, I loved all of the ones that had romance in them, so I would have love love loved this one. Oh well, I thought it was sweet as an adult too.

[Kristal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got through this one quickly! This story is about a family that decided to go out west to California after the gold rush.

I liked this better than the Dear Canada book on the same topic; the Dear Canada book made the men who went out for gold look like they were 100% fools whereas this story shows that the miners did indeed find fortunes. However, it was the circumstances surrounding them that made them lose them (like extremely high grocery prices, addiction, thieves, and dangerous working conditions). This book did a great job explaining the gold rush.

Kristiana Gregory is an excellent writer and she really builds the characters well. She also does her research- I loved hearing about the bull and bear markets in the notes!

[Hasvita · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book was alright I wasn't hooked in the beginning but after reading further on I read about the interesting things that have happened to Susanna. This book takes place in the 1800s during the oh so famous Gold Rush in California. In the beginning, Susanna has written in her diary about the voyages and what happened during the trip on the ship. It was quite boring at this point, but the best part of the book, in my opinion, was when all the exciting stuff like the murders have got loose. I gave this book 3 stars because it wasn't a bad book just not the best one. Some of the problems I've had with this book is that the hook wasn't there until a bit far into the book.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not going to lie- I had a bit of hard time getting over the central part of me having to suspend disbelief (a man that intelligent thinking it was a good idea to take two teenage girls into a mining camp and then leaving them alone for long periods of time), but once I did, I enjoyed the story.

The two girls are badasses and cool to read. I liked how it used the setting and time period to showcase fundamental truth about humanity- In a situation where people are drawn together, some people are capable of the greatest kindness, while others will show the greatest cruelty. It's either come together or every man for himself, and Gregory showcased that very well in her plot and writing.

[annapi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part of the Dear America series, this diary is set in California during the gold rush of 1849. The Fairchild family is traveling to Oregon by steamboat when they hear about the discovery of gold in California. Their father gets gold fever, and the girls reluctantly agree to go with him when he decides to disembark in California to seek his fortune.

Fascinating portrait of the time. I liked the story well enough, though I didn't think it was anything stellar. The characters were okay, but I really didn't connect with any of them. Overall a good historical fiction book for middle school readers.

[Xanh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Susanna Fairchild and her family embark on a journey with the hope of a better life. However, everything had turned to quite terrible when her mother died. Susanna and her sister Clara suffered a variety of trouble like murder without her mother. Fortunately, it got a happy ending.

Innocence, attractive description sightseeings of Susanna quite interested me. I love the way she had been maturing rapidly as well.
This book also illustrates the facts of gold fever and consequently, people seem to earn nothing but loose.

[Katrina Kuhn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never read this book in the “Dear America” series, so there’s no nostalgia here.

As always, I think the author did a good job establishing what life would have been like out west for a young woman in the mid-1840s. For a children’s series, this story does not shy away from dark moments — death, a hanging, disease, and more. Ultimately, I learned a couple of new things, and enjoyed the trip back in time.

[LobsterQuadrille · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seeds of Hope is a satisfying story that doesn't shy away from the unpleasant realities of its setting. There are some colorful characters(both good and bad), and this is actually a sort of companion book to Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie, via some neat little details I had never noticed before.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. I really enjoyed all of the characters, even though I was frustrated with their father for a significant portion - Miner's Creek was no place for a girl! I loved the role of animals, though I was disappointed with their treatment - even by our heroine.

I recommend as a light, juvenile historical fiction read. It's fun and superquick!