HOME SCHOOL BOOK REVIEW
Book: Snowshoe Thompson
Author: Levinson, Nancy Smiler
Illustrator: Joan Sandin
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, reprinted in 1996
ISBN-13: 9780064442060
ISBN-10: 0064442063
Language level: Language level: 1 (nothing objectionable)
Reading level: Grades 2-4
Rating: 5 stars (EXCELLENT)
Reviewed by Wayne S. Walker
For more information e-mail homeschoolbookreview@gmail.com
Levinson, Nancy Smiler. Snowshoe Thompson (published in 1992 by Harper Trophy, a division of Harper Collins Publishers Inc.). Danny wants his dad to come home from Nevada, where he is digging for gold, for Christmas and writes him a letter to tell him so. However, when deep snows cut off the mail until spring, only postman John Thompson can get through the Sierra Nevada Mountains to deliver his letter. This “I Can Read Book” for level 3 is about Thompson, a native Norwegian who came to Placerville, CA, in the early 1850’s to seek his fortune in the gold rush. He skiied a five-day, ninety-mile journey across the Sierra Nevada one winter to create a path upon which mail and people could travel through the deep snow, thus earning his nickname of “Snowshoe Thompson.” Even though this book is obviously for young readers, it is still a very interesting story, and is listed as juvenile literaturebiography, but the synopsis says that it is historical fiction based on a true story.
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