Salmon River Kid

Welcome to the Idaho Territory of 1872, where a boy and his father eke out a livelihood. If the winters don't kill you, the claim jumpers might.Novelist Dorris (Sheepeater: To Cry For a Vision, 2009, etc.) tells of Samuel (never Sam) Chambers and his father, Charles, who have come from Iowa to mine enough gold to return to and improve the farmstead, where Samuel's mother and little sister wait. Samuel is 14, but he's a mature, resourceful 14. Yet this beautiful if harsh land is unforgiving country, both in terms of nature and bad guys. He and his father work like dogs at their claims, only to have those claims jumped not once, but twice. There are decent people, too. On their horseback travels, Samuel meets the lovely Bonnie McCracken, and they fall in love. Samuel's rival is the crude, treacherous Rex Callahan, a ranch hand at Slate Creek, but eventually, Samuel spares his miserable life, and Rex quits the territory. There are also many Chinamen in the territory; unsurprisingly, no love is lost between them and the whites. But Samuel has befriended them, especially another boy named Chen. Even Charles, a basically good man, grudgingly grants the Chinamen respect, but only on his son's say-so. In a dramatic, hair-raising trek, Samuel and Chen elude and then face the claim jumpers again-after which Samuel and his father face the other claim jumpers. Dorris, a confident storyteller, writes notably well. He's not afraid to dwell on detail as the coming-of-age tale slowly unwinds, keeping readers' interest all the while. He knows gold mining, too, so readers should be prepared to learn a lot about placer mining, hard rock mining, assaying and so forth. There are no cardboard cutouts here; even minor characters are well-drawn. In the end, the moral universe is put to rights, but-importantly-nothing comes easily. An excellent read. Let's hope there's more to come.

Starred review from October 1, 2015
This adventure novelthe third in a seriescontinues the story of 15-year-old Samuel Chambers and his father, Charles, as they search for gold in the Idaho Territory in 1872. Samuel and Charles originally joined the gold rush hoping to make enough money to return to their struggling farm in Iowa. But each season has brought daunting challenges, and their dreams are dashed when their small cache of gold is stolen. As Samuel transitions from boy to man, even falling in love, he begins to weigh his dream of finding gold against his longing to see his mother again. The story offers a rich, authentic portrayal of the Old West, and Dorris, who spent his youth exploring the Idaho backcountry, captures the uneasy relationship between the settlers and the Idaho Sheepeater Indians, as well as dramatizing the blatant prejudice against the Chinese. He also details the process of cleaving gold from its source, with plenty of lighthearted moments interspersed throughout. Adults and teens alike will not only appreciate Samuel's escapades in this immensely entertaining novel, but they will also develop new respect for the hardy souls who persevered in this harsh land.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)