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Alice Ramsey's Grand Adventure
Brown, Don. 1997. Alice Ramsey's
grand adventure. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN:
0395701279.
Author and illustrator Don Brown chooses to tell the true yet mostly
unknown story of Alice Ramsey, the first woman to drive coast-to-coast
across the United States. Ramsey's story begins in the summer of 1909
as she leaves New York City at the wheel of a Maxwell automobile. Her
passengers will vary along the way, she doesn't have a map, and she
will face many obstacles, but fifty-nine days later she will pull into
San Francisco and accomplish her dream. The story tells that she
repeats this trek more than thirty times in her lifetime.
Burns labels Brown's writing style "accessible," and he indeed tells
the story in a way that young readers can comprehend. He also makes
comparisons that reveal that a journey across the United States was
different in the early 1900's. On page 6, he goes into great detail
about the car's requirements, such as lighting the headlights with a
match and measuring the gasoline with a stick, in a way that allows
even the youngest reader to realize the great differences between
today's cars and the automobiles of Ramsey's time. Brown writes
of appropriate events throughout Ramsey's journey that add
excitement, humor, and suspense. By labeling these events by location,
the reader is able to follow Ramsey's path across the United States.
Peters states in his review for School
Library Journal, "Brown tells the tale in dramatic fashion,
choosing entertaining details with a sure hand."
Brown's ink and watercolor illustrations enhance the text by
further revealing Ramsey's surroundings. Although the faces of Brown's
characters are not detailed, he is able to portray Ramsey's resolve
through the tilt of a head, her shoulders hunched toward the steering
wheel, and other body language. For example, Brown's text on page nine
reads, "It was slower going over a road in Illinois. The way was
clogged with pigs - big pigs, little pigs, brown, black and pink
pigs!" The illustration shows thirty pigs surrounding the little
car with four bonnetted women. The outline of Ramsey's profile is
shown, but her frustration is shown by the condescension in the tilt of
her head and her hands placed on her hips in a huff. The fat pigs
completely block the progression of the car, and this puts some
perspective on the predicament faced by Ramsey in Brown's text.
The text is set in a medium serif font, and the design of each page
differs. Many of the two page spreads have text on one side and an
illustration on the other. Some have smaller illustrations and
corresponding text placed in as many as four locations. The design also
makes full use of the entire width of the book to show the drama and
vastness of the terrain that Ramsey covered, such as page 23, which
shows a small Maxwell with tiny bonnets sticking out crossing a huge
river on a railroad bridge.
No access features are included.
Burns, Mary M. 1997. Booklist: Nonfiction. Horn Book Magazine 73(6). In
EBSCOHost (database online). Available
from http://search.epnet.com/login.asp. Accessed 25 February
2005.
Peters, John. 1997. Preschool to grade 4: Nonfiction. School Library Journal 43(9). In
EBSCOHost (database online). Available
from http://search.epnet.com/login.asp. Accessed 25 February
2005.
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