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This entire series is a wonderful way to learn history or teach it to adolescents. I find today's generations seem to recall more when they learn through other people (pop songs, celebrity gossip, etc.), so what better way to teach history than through someone else's perspective? Yes, "authentic" diaries would be "better", but would the language really hold the modern student's attention? Did the diary writer know what WOULD be important in the context of history? Probably not. ( )

With "Seeds of Change: The Gold Rush Diary of Susanna Fairchild", the reader is offered an engaging story combined with great historical information. The voice of this "Dear America" story is Susanna, a fourteen year-old girl from New York. Susanna, her parents, and older sister were on an ocean journey to Oregon in 1849 when Susanna's mother tragically falls overboard. Since she had sewn all of the family's money in her dress, she quickly drowned in the rough seas. Partly because he wants to replace the money he has lost, but more because he is in a state of shock, Susanna's father makes the decision to abandon his plan to start a medical practice in Oregon, and instead, decides to join others who are searching for gold in California. His two daughters go with him and Susanna chronicles the family's experiences in her mother's incomplete journal. One thing that makes this book so unique is author Kristiana Gregory's detailed descriptions. The sounds, tastes, and views that a young woman living in the rugged, and often cruel, Gold Rush era would encounter are all included. The "seeds of hope" in the story end up being the small gold nuggets which look like cantaloupe seeds. However, it is not the gold which turns out to be the savior of the family, but rather the human relationships Susanna and others create with those around them. Some students will love the adventure aspect of this book, while others will appreciate the great character development. Like other "Dear America" books, historical notes, drawings, photographs, and even a song and recipe are included at the end of the story. ( )

It is January, 1849. Fourteen-year-old Susanna Fairchild, her father, and her sixteen-year-old sister Clara are on board a ship, almost to the end of their long sea voyage from New York to Oregon, when they hear news of a gold strike in California. Susanna's desperate father, grieving after the death of his wife and nearly penniless after losing all his money, abandons his plan of establishing a medical practice in Oregon and decides to mine for gold in the hope of gaining back the money he lost. Writing in the diary left behind by her mother, Susanna describes life in a rough-and-tumble mining camp and the dangers she and Clara face when they are left alone for weeks at a time. But in spite of the many hardships they face, the two sisters grow closer and experience the joys of finding new friends and their first loves. I highly reccomend this book to all fans of the Dear America series. Kristiana Gregory has written a beautiful story about a family that faces many losses but manages to grow stronger, not from the riches that they struggle to find, but through the love they share. This has quickly become my favorite book in the Dear America series. ( )