Last updated: May 20, 2015
Welcome to Kirsten’s World 1854, Growing Up in Pioneer America, by Susan Sinnott. Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company Publications, 1999.
Welcome to Kirsten’s World, 1854: Growing Up in Pioneer America tracks a young girl and her family’s journey from Sweden to the New World using documents such as photographs, newspaper articles, letters, and other assorted artifacts. The book invites its readers to get a real taste of daily life for a young immigrant and her family as they encounter the New World. Kirsten and her family live in a sod dugout and interact with local American Indians and settlers from around the world.
One of the major themes of the book is to show how the lives of the pioneers and American Indians are connected. The reader gets the opportunity to compare and contrast their lives, especially in sections of the book entitled Daily Life of the Dakota and Daily Life in the Homestead.
Both the book’s drawings and photos are incredibly rich and detailed and add much to the overall depth and focus of the book.
Any juvenile, young adult reader, student, teacher or history buff will enjoy this fun and informative book. It succeeds by offering a myriad of tales and perspectives and ultimately highlights the unique cultural blend that is the American experience.