Clara Morgan and the Oregon Trail Journey

History Speaks: Picture Books Plus Reader's Theater

by Marty Rhodes Figley, Craig Orback (Illustrator)

Eleven-year-old Clara Morgan traveled the Oregon Trail with her family. While her mother cared for the baby, Clara struggled with the cooking. Finally, she made her first batch of perfect biscuits. But she gave them up to a hungry American Indian who stopped by. Little did she know they would meet again. Would her family’s act of kindness help them farther down the trail?

In the back of this book, you’ll find a script and instructions for putting on a reader’s theater performance of this adventure. At our companion website―www.lerneresource.com―you can download additional copies of the script plus sound effects, background images, and more ideas that will help make your reader’s theater performance a success.

48 pages, Library Binding

First published August 1, 2010

About the author

I have fond memories of summer visits to my grandparents in Hannibal, Missouri. Grandma and Grandpa Priests' grocery store featured a candy case chock full of wax lips, licorice sticks and jawbreakers. Grandma and Grandpa Rhodes' farm delighted me with cute, baby calves and garden-fresh corn on the cob. I love to write about ordinary children experiencing exciting events in our country's history. I hope that when young readers finish one of my books they realize that history is much more than facts and dates. It's filled with children's hopes and dreams.