{"id":44893,"date":"2025-02-26T23:05:32","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T04:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=44893"},"modified":"2025-02-26T23:05:32","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T04:05:32","slug":"review-of-one-big-open-sky-by-lesa-cline-ransome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=44893","title":{"rendered":"Review of One Big Open Sky, by Lesa Cline-Ransome"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>One Big Open Sky<\/em><\/p>\n

by Lesa Cline-Ransome<\/p>\n

Holiday House, 2024. 300 pages.
\nReview written February 13, 2025, from a library book.
\nStarred Review
\n2025 Newbery Honor Book
\n2025 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book<\/p>\n

This Newbery Honor Book is a pioneer story – about a Black family. And yes, that surprised me – but it turns out it shouldn’t, because from 1879 to 1880, over 20,000 Black people left the South to head West. The author gives details in the back of the book, but it turns out that many people lived out this story – even though there’s not as much written about the Black pioneers.<\/p>\n

One Big Open Sky<\/em> is told in verse (so it doesn’t take long to read), mostly from the perspective of Lettie, a girl who’s leaving Natchez, Louisiana, with her parents and two little brothers, in a covered wagon pulled by their two mules Charly and Titus. We also get the viewpoint of her mother and a single black woman who joins their party, who’s got a position as a teacher in North Platte, Nebraska.<\/p>\n

The family joins a group of ten Black families headed for Nebraska. Their original plan was to take a steamboat up the Mississippi River most of the way, but when none of those will stop for a group of Black folks, they decide to walk. I didn’t realize that the wagon was mainly for supplies, and there wasn’t really room enough for everyone to ride, so unless you were sick, you walked alongside.<\/p>\n

There are several dangers and setbacks along the way. Lettie’s keeping the accounts for her parents, so she knows they can’t buy all the good things they see at their stop in Independence, Missouri. She adopts the dog of a man who dies along the way, so she has him to turn to when a loss hits even closer to home.<\/p>\n

Now at last Black girls can see someone like them in a pioneer story, with all the danger but excitement of leaving home behind and making the long journey to a new place.<\/p>\n

lesaclineransome.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Fiction\/one_big_open_sky.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome Holiday House, 2024. 300 pages. Review written February 13, 2025, from a library book. Starred Review 2025 Newbery Honor Book 2025 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book This Newbery Honor Book is a pioneer story – about a Black family. And yes, that surprised me – but it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,32,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-fiction-review","category-historical","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44893"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44960,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44893\/revisions\/44960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}