Walk on Earth a Stranger

Starred review from June 22, 2015
Carson (the Girl of Fire and Thorns series) launches her Gold Seer trilogy with a winning story set in 1849 gold rush America. Fifteen-year-old Leah Westfall lives a happy life with her parents in Georgia during the waning years of that state’s gold boom. Leah has a magical ability to locate the precious metal, but her gift becomes a liability when she is forced from her home by a villain determined to control her and make himself rich. Disguised as a boy, Leah—now Lee—decides that her best chance for freedom is to travel to the newly discovered gold fields of California; to get there, she must make a long, hard trek across the country with few resources. Carson’s story is simply terrific—tense and exciting, while gently and honestly addressing the brutal hardships of the westward migration. Even minor characters are fully three-dimensional, but it’s Leah who rightfully takes center stage as a smart, resourceful, determined, and realistic heroine who embodies the age-old philosophy that it isn’t what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters. Ages 13–up. Agent: Holly Root, Waxman Leavell Literary Agency.

June 15, 2015
Acclaimed for her fantasy, Carson now travels the Old West. Fifteen-year-old Leah lives on a farm near Dahlonega, Georgia, a town built around an early gold rush. She and her parents keep secret the fact that she has a mysterious "gold sense": she can find gold the way diviners find water, and despite the shabbiness of their homestead, the family is hiding 3 pounds of gold dust. When her parents are murdered and the gold stolen, Leah suspects her only living relative, who threatens to use her talents for nefarious ends. Leah and her childhood friend, a half-Cherokee boy named Jefferson, run away and join a wagon train headed toward California's newly discovered gold. Leah's narration details the adventures of their journey with a disparate group of travelers who often come across as archetypes more than fully fledged characters. There's the racist who attacks peaceful Indians, the selfish man who overloads his wagon with luxury goods, the runaway slave, the clueless itinerant preacher-none drawn with enough depth to make him or her memorable. Leah dresses as a boy for half the journey, and the revelation of her gender is accepted too readily to seem historically accurate. Along with other minor historical gaffes, Carson can neither sustain the tension of Leah's parents' murders nor put Leah's magical powers to interesting use. The tepid, resolution-free ending beckons potential sequels. (author's note, dramatis personae) (Historical fantasy. 12-14)

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August 1, 2015

Gr 6 Up-This riveting saga features 15-year-old tomboy Leah, who has an extraordinary talent, the ability to sense when gold is near. She uses this skill to provide for her ailing parents, who live in an isolated part of Dahlonega, GA, the site of the first major U.S. gold rush in the early 1800s. They lead a fairly frugal existence so as not to arouse local suspicions. When her parents are robbed and murdered and her best (and only) friend, a half-white, half-Cherokee boy named Jefferson, leaves Georgia for a new gold rush in California, her world is turned upside down. To make matters worse, a nefarious uncle comes to claim her parents' property and use her gold-seeking skills for ill intent. Disguised as a boy, she leaves the only home she's ever known to reunite with Jefferson and join a wagon train. Lee, as she calls herself, is a smart, feisty, and likable protagonist who encounters all the hardships one would expect on the arduous journey West-illness, injury, hunger, exposure to extreme weather, and buffalo stampedes. All the while, she knows her uncle will stop at nothing to hunt her down. At the crux of the story is Leah's dilemma of keeping her gender and talent a secret from those to whom she becomes close. The time period rings true through Carson's skillful use of language and attention to detail. VERDICT Though the wagon train adventure is slightly cliche, the fast-paced plot, a hint of mild romance, and the added element of fantasy make this stand out from your average Gold Rush story.-Madeline J. Bryant, Los Angeles Public Library

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2015
Grades 8-11 *Starred Review* Leah Westfall (known as Lee McCauley when she is disguised as a boy) can sense gold, a talent both valuable and dangerous. After her parents are murdered and their gold stolen, and her uncle Hiram makes known his less-than-honorable intentions, she heads west from her Georgia home, hoping to meet up with her best friend Jefferson in Independence. Their plan is to travel to California, but it's a horrible, tedious journey lightened by gradually developing friendships between Leah and her wagon mates and the slowly blossoming romance with Jefferson. There's a lot going on here, from slavery, animal cruelty, and Indian bashing to heart-stopping medical procedures and gender and class issues. But Carson is known for her world building and strong female characters, and she handles everything with carefully constructed, well-researched aplomb. It's a book that illuminates an important segment of American history as effectively as some textbooks, sustaining YA interest through adventure, fantasy, and romance. With Leah's journey to California complete and the quest for gold just begun, readers can anticipate more of the same in the second of Carson's planned trilogy. Until then, this offers plenty on which to ruminate.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)