West to a Land of Plenty: The Diary of Teresa Angelino Viscardi

by Jim Murphy

Book Overview

The first humorous book in the Dear America series, "West to a Land of Plenty" follows an Italian girl's immigrant family as they move from New York City to a utopian community in the frontier West. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0590738887
• ISBN13: 9780590738880
• Release Date: March 1998
• Publisher: Scholastic
• Length: 204 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

Loved it!!!

Exciting "Dear America" book!

"West to a Land of Plenty" was a great book, in an 1880's diary form, on a 14 year-old Italian American girl, Teresa.Teresa lives in a crowded, New York neighborhood with her family, when her father suddenly decides to take the family west, to a new community called Opportunity. With that decision, Teresa's changes just begin!Going west by train and wagon is exciting to Teresa, but she is also very sad to leave her school and friends. Her pesky little sister, Netta, also gets on her nerves, and Teresa constantly tries to hide her diary from her! When Teresa begins to make friends, however, she finds that things might not be so bad, but then disaster strikes...This was a great book, and a must read for anyone aged 10 and up! Be sure to also read "Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie", and "The Great Railroad Race", two other "Dear America" novels.

A girl and her family head west in 1883.

In the spring of 1883, fourteen-year-old Teresa Viscardi and her large Italian-American family, which includes her, her younger brother and sister, her parents, her aunt, uncle, cousin, and grandmother, leave their home in New York City and decide to head west to Idaho to participate in the founding of a utopian community. The community is to be called Opportunity, but Teresa isn't of the feeling that the west is filled with opportunity. She wants to return to New York City, where her friends and home are. Instead, she's stuck, first on a crowded train, and then on a covered wagon caravan, with her annoying family, of which her grandmother and sister are the most annoying. Nanna is stubbornly traditional, and pesky Netta reads Teresa's private diary. But when tragedy strikes, Teresa realizes how much her family means to her, and she may be the only one who can save them from disaster. I highly reccomend this excellant addition to the Dear America series. It's a great read if you like historical fiction, stories about pioneer life, or the other books in the series.

Slow start but GREAT ending!

When I started the book I wasn't too pleased. I found Teresa hard to understand. I thought it was cute about Netta but didn't think that this story would compare to the other books in the serries. Then I read the end...I won't tell you it because it shocked me so very much that I had to read it twice and that made it better. The ending is so well written that I was in tears. And to the person who wrote the first review READ THE END! It so well done and so unbelieveable that I'm crying just writting the review!

Cool!

I liked it! in this book, Teresa Angelino Viscardi and her family are going west to the Idaho Tereitory by train and wagon. It was a sad and happy story. I liked the way Teresa AND Antoinetta wrote in the Diary so you got the story from two point of veiws.

One of My Favorites

Though this wasn't really a historical event, something may of happened like this. The writer mentions that between 1870-1900 was when most communities were being born, so that's the main idea of the story. This is about Teresa Angelino Viscardi, a 14 year old Italian Immigrant. She travels with her large family on a train and by wagon all the way to Idaho territory. But the journey is not easy. It is FAR from easy. They cross a river and two girl's from another wagon drown. Then the saddest thing happens! But you have to read it of course. This diary was so well written I kept thinking that Teresa and Netta, her little sister, who you come to love, were real. This is another powerfully emotionaly and exciting, and truthful Dear America Diary. Keep up the good work Dear America writers! We can't wait for more. Even though this book is sad, you MUST READ IT! Sniffle, sniffle, sob, sob. :(But most of the journey was :)