Gold Rush Girl
Prolific author Avi proves once more why he’s one of North America’s most beloved children’s authors in this stunning middle-grade adventure set during the California Gold Rush.
In Providence, Rhode Island, in 1849, fourteen-year-old Victoria “Tory” Blaisedell’s typically spineless father finds himself unexpectedly unemployed. Swept away by reports of easy riches in California, he announces he’s taking Tory’s ten-year-old brother, Jacob, and heading for the gold fields. Not content with the prospects allotted to a young woman in New England, Tory stows away on their ship and accompanies her father and brother to California. Once the trio arrives in San Francisco, Tory’s father secures them a tent to live in (for “only” $100) and leaves Jacob in Tory’s care while he heads to the gold fields alone.
Annoyed to be saddled with her younger brother, Tory leaves him in their tent while she works odd jobs around town. But one evening, she returns home to find Jacob missing, and all signs point to his having been abducted to serve on the crew of a ship returning east. But which one? Accompanied by two new friends, Tory races to locate her brother among the hundreds of abandoned ships in the harbor, known as “Rotten Row.”
Avi has masterfully captured the sights, sounds, and smells of San Francisco in its infancy, when it was less a town than a muddy camp. Through Tory, Avi reflects both the speech patterns of the era and Tory’s spunk. The friends Tory makes in California reflect the diversity of the place and time and will make this book appeal to a wide audience. Middle-grade readers will thrill over this swashbuckling adventure, and adults who grew up reading Avi’s books will delight to know this author hasn’t lost a single step.
