by Ivy Ruckman
In Care of Cassie Tucker is written by Ivy Ruckman. This book is about 11-year-old Cassie and her brothers John and Ted and their parents. The Tuckers live on a farm in Blue Hill, Nebraska in the year 1899. The turn of the century is a big adventure for the Tuckers!
Papa is a preacher and he prays a lot about the different problems in the family almost every day! Later, their unknown cousin comes to live with them because his parents had died from cholera. The neighbors had burned down the cousin's house because they were afraid that they would get the cholera disease, so he could not stay there. He traveled by wagon all by himself all the way from Montana to Blue Hill, Nebraska. Ted, Cassie's oldest brother, was being bucked around by their neighbor's horse like a wild kangaroo! He flew and hit his head right on the wood of the horse corral; he finally was better after about five days! Then they had the most wild, fierce man-killing machine Blizzard! It would have killed half the people in town!
This book had a surprise for every flip of a page! My favorite part of the book is when the blizzard came. If I were Cassie, I wouldn't want to have to take care of a six-year old brother who didn't even know a thing about what was happening! She saved her cousin's life by shooting off a shotgun to lead him home to their house. I would be scared if we had snow drifts to the top of our house! I would also be scared if my parents had unexpectedly been gone for two days!
I think that this book is showing us how hard it was for homesteads in Nebraska. It tells some of the hardships that they went through. The book also tells about different things that would have happened back then. The writer tells us about the deadly storms and diseases like blizzards and cholera. I would recommend this book to anyone! It gives a lot of information on the early days in Nebraska!
Reviewed by Michelle 10/02