Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie

Stina Nielsen's youthful voice graces a teenager's account of her family during their six-month journey on the Oregon Trail in 1847 in this production for young listeners. Hattie Campbell is eager for the adventure that waits around the next bend of the route, while also exhausted with the endless weeks of dust and hardship. Nielsen animates the diary with the awe of Hattie's discoveries. Young Hattie becomes terrified of river crossings after witnessing the heartrending drowning of a fellow traveler but loses her fear of Indians after meeting a young native woman who shows wordless compassion for a new widow. Barbara Rosenblat narrates the epilogue with impeccable style. N.M.C. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine