Boom Town (book)

Boom Town is a 1998 historical fiction picture book written by Sonia Levitin, illustrated by Cat Bowman Smith and published by Orchard Books. Boom Town tells the story of Amanda and her family after they move to California to accompany her father in his search for gold during the California Gold Rush. To alleviate her boredom, Amanda figures out how to bake pies, and by a combination of circumstance and cleverness she starts a successful bakery that kickstarts the settlement into becoming a boomtown.

Boom Town
AuthorSonia Levitin
IllustratorCat Bowman Smith
GenreHistorical fiction
PublisherOrchard
Publication date
1998
Pages40
ISBN0-531-30043-9
Preceded byNine for California 
Followed byTaking Charge 

Favorably reviewed at the time of its release, Boom Town was nominated for the Nebraska Golden Sower Award and was included in the Reading Teacher's 1999 Teacher's Choices list of recommended books for curriculum use.

Background

Though she spent most of her career writing young adult fiction, author Sonia Levitin ventured into writing picture books in the late-twentieth century. One of these picture books was Nine for California. Published in 1996, Nine for California is a work of historical fiction about a girl named Amanda and her family's journey from Missouri to California during the California Gold Rush.[1]

While reading a book about the history of California, Levitin noticed a description of a girl who, during the Gold Rush, baked $11,000 worth of pies.[1][2] Inspired by this story, Levitin wrote Boom Town as a sequel to Nine for California, further developing the story of Amanda and her family.[3]

Contents

Summary

Boom Town is narrated in the first-person by Amanda.[4] The book opens on Amanda and her family having moved to California where her father prospects for gold.[5] The family's new home town is sparsely inhabited, including only "a stage stop, a pump house, a few log cabins."[6] Out of boredom, Amanda figures out, after a few tries, how to bake gooseberry pie using her family's wood-fire stove.[4][6] When Amanda's father reports that he sold her pie to other miners for 25 cents a slice,[7] the experiment turns into a small business, and Amanda ropes her brothers into working for her in a bakery where she sells pies to local prospectors.[5][8]

Amanda to Peddler Pete

Folks need things all the time, and there're no stores around. If you were to settle and start one, I'll bet you'd be rich.

Amanda, in Boom Town[4]

Amanda's impromptu pie business achieves success,[3] and Amanda gradually convinces other travelers to settle down in the area and start shops.[6] For example, she suggests to a peddler who sells her more pie pans that he open a trading post in town, and she persuades several others to start local businesses such as a livery and laundry.[8] Reviewer Anne Scott MacLeod explains how thanks to these developments, "the settlement is a real town, all because of Amanda's enterprising spirit."[5] Recognizing Amanda's success, her father gives up trying to strike gold and instead starts working for Amanda in her bakery, freeing her up to attend the town's new school.[6]

At the end of the book, there is a historical note stating that many people who found success during the Gold Rush did so as entrepreneurs rather than as miners. This note also refers to the girl baker whose story inspired Boom Town. There is also a recipe for Amanda's gooseberry pie.[4]

Illustrations

Cat Bowman Smith illustrated Boom Town with what Kirkus Reviews called "detailed watercolors".[7] The hues are dusty and earthy.[8][5] The Reading Teacher described the style as having "cartoonish flair".[9] Smith's illustrations depict the landscape, the town, and the characters, from Amanda's baby sister to Amanda herself in her gingham dress.[7] According to reviewer Anne Scott MacLeod, the characters' clothes, tools, and other details are accurate to the setting. Smith diversifies the book through her illustrations by including Black Americans and Asians in the town's cast.[5]

Publication

Orchard Books published Boom Town in March 1998.[7] The trade edition sold for $15.95 (USD), and the library edition sold for $16.99.[3] The book is 40 pages long.[7] The pages are not numbered.[6]

A paperback edition was published in 2004.[10][11]

Levitin wrote and Smith illustrated a sequel also starring Amanda titled Taking Charge, which Orchard Books published in 1999.[1]

Critical reception
School Library Journal excerpt

Amanda's narration lends just the right touch of humor to an authentic, though exaggerated look at the development of the West. Young readers will particularly enjoy the way the girl subtly manipulates so many adults into contributing to the town's amazing growth.

Steven Engelfried[6]

Boom Town received favorable reviews.[1] Kirkus called the book "a deeply satisfying story starring a resourceful heroine".[7] In the School Library Journal, Steven Engelfried praised the narratorial voice for Amanda, stating the character added "just the right touch of humor to an authentic, though exaggerated look at the development of the West".[6] In a paper exploring readers theater as a tool for improving girls' self-esteem, Debby Zambo includes Boom Town in a list of books with strong female characters.[11]

Reviewers complimented the book's potential pedagogical value. Writing for Booklist, reviewer Lauren Peterson concluded that "True or not, this is an entertaining way to learn history."[3] Reviewer Margaret A. Bush, writing for Horn Book Magazine, concluded that Levitin's "intent to demonstrate that far more settlers made fortunes by providing goods and services than by striking gold is adroitly accomplished in this entertaining lesson in history and human nature."[4]

Smith's illustrations were also praised. Publishers Weekly stated that her "rollicking, dusty-toned watercolors capture the energy of a developing town and convey the can-do spirit of adventurous settlers."[8] Writing for the New York Times, Anne Scott MacLeod called Smith's artwork "as spirited as Amanda ... loose, energetic, cheerful and full of accurate detail."[5] Bush noted that Smith's illustration work was "comic and informative, conveying the busy lives of the homely, hard-working people".[4]

The Reading Teacher included Boom Town in its 1999 Teachers' Choices list as one of two recommended books from the previous year for children ages five to eight years old. Reading Teacher suggested that Boom Town could be used in curriculum as a companion to teaching about either the California Gold Rush or about frontier towns in nineteenth-century United States.[9]

Boom Town was also nominated for the Nebraska Golden Sower Award.[12]

See also

Notes
  1. "Sonia Levitin". Authors and Artists for Young Adults. 48. 2003 – via Gale In Context: Biography.
  2. According to a historical note in Boom Town, Levitin read this in Beck, Warren A.; Williams, David A. (1972). California: A History of the Golden State. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0385062672. OL 5761571M. Beck & Williams (1972, p. 147) write, "A young lady who learned to improvise baked $11,000 worth of pies in a small iron skillet."
  3. Peterson, Lauren (February 15, 1998). "Boom Town". Booklist (review). 94 (12).
  4. Bush, Margaret A. (March–April 1998). "Boom Town". The Horn Book Magazine (review). Vol. 74, no. 2. p. 215 – via Gale Academic OneFile.
  5. MacLeod, Anne Scott (March 17, 1998). "And No Television, Either". The New York Times (review). Archived from the original on November 29, 2022.
  6. Engelfried, Steven. "Preschool to Grade Four: Fiction". School Library Journal. 44 (3) – via Literary Reference Center Plus.
  7. "Boom Town". Kirkus Reviews. January 15, 1998. Archived from the original on November 29, 2022.
  8. "Boom Town". Publishers Weekly. March 2, 1998. Archived from the original on November 29, 2022.
  9. "Teachers' Choices for 1999". The Reading Teacher. 53 (3): 249–255. November 1999. ISSN 0034-0561. JSTOR 20204785 – via JSTOR.
  10. "Boom Town (1998)". Fantastic Fiction. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
  11. Zambo, Debby (March 2011). "Young Girls Discovering Their Voice with Literacy and Readers Theater". YC: Young Children. 66 (2): 28–35. ISSN 1538-6619. JSTOR 42730716 – via JSTOR.
  12. "Levitin, Sonia 1934–". Encyclopedia.com. Something About the Author. Gale: A Cengage Company. Archived from the original on October 22, 2022. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
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