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The Ballad of Lucy Whipple   Author: Karen Cushman   Ages: 9-12   Topics: California, California Gold discoveries, Frontier & Pioneer life, Family life, Gold Rush   Genre: Historical Fiction   Summary This story begins in 1849. Lucy, who is a twelve year old girl, is upset when her mother decides to move the whole family from Massachusetts to a small California mining town. Lucy helps to run the boarding house. She enjoys reading books and spends much of her time trying to find a way to go back home. We learn much about life and times in the West.

Beyond the Book

Use the Internet Connections below to find resources needed to complete the following activities:

• Learn more about the California Gold Rush and Sutter's Mill. Create a timeline of key events. Add Lucy's adventures on the timeline.
• Pretend that you're Lucy and write a postcard to your cousin who lives back in Massachusetts. Locate a picture on the Internet from that time period to include on your postcard.
• In pairs, use the Internet resources to explore some of the people from the gold rush time period. Pretend that this person has come to your small mining town. Create a list of questions you would ask this person. Now, trade the questions with someone else. Answer the questions like the "real person" would answer them.
• Make a list of your favorite books to be placed in Lucy's Library.
• On a globe of the world, trace the route Lucy's family traveled from Massachusetts to California. What was life like on the ships that took the people West during the gold rush?
• Find out more about other places in the United States where gold was discovered. Write about a girl traveling to that location.
• What was happening in the area where you live in 1849? Find out what areas of the United States were settled in 1849?

Internet Connections

Gold Rush-Sea Route

http://www.pbs.org/goldrush/journey.html

Picture of Ship

http://www.goldrush1849.com/thumbnails/steamboat.html

Discovery of Gold

http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist2/gold.html

The Great American Gold Rush

http://pwa.acusd.edu/%7Ejross/goldrush.html

The Virtual California Gold Country

http://www.malakoff.com/vcgc.htm

San Francisco Museum --Gold Rush--

http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/index0.1.html#gold

Discovery-Wayback Machine-Gold Rush

http://www.discovery.com/stories/wayback/980323/wayback.html

Gold Rush

http://www.goldrush1849.com/virtual.html

The Way West

http://www.goldrush1849.com/thewaywest.html

Picture of Ship

http://www.goldrush1849.com/thumbnails/steamboat.html

 

Author and Book Connections

Explore information about the author of the book:

Karen Cushman

http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/special/kay/cushman.html

Karen Cushman

http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/author/cushman/aboutauthor.html

 

Read other books by the same author:

Catherine, Called Birdy

The Midwife's Apprentice

  

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