Trouble River by Betsy Byars
Reviewed by Rachel Sage*
This month’s report is on a book my teacher had the 5th grade class read that was a good book, just not really my kind of book.Trouble River is a book about Dewey, Grandma, and the Rosey B. The Rosey B. is a makeshift raft built by a nine year old boy named Dewey. Dewey and his family moved out west only a few months ago with his VERY superstitious grandmother who believes that when you hear an owl screech someone will die. Anyway, Ma was going to have a baby and there is no sense in taking the whole family to the big city so Pa just took himself and Ma. The Indians took advantage of a nine-year-old kid being the only “man” in the house. About a week after Ma and Pa had left, an Indian was spotted outside the cabin probably going to set fire to it, while he thought Dewey, Charlie the dog and grandma were sleeping, but old granny had a feeling something like this would happen so she and Dewey were awake when the Indian struck. As soon as the Indian was scared off, Dewey took grandma, her rocking chair, a bag of food and, of course, Charlie, who had been injured when he scared the Indian, onto the raft. A journey down Trouble River, no man’s land, or no man’s waters, whatever you want to call it. It’s a dangerous journey nonetheless. The question is: will they make it to Hunter City, to his family? Or will the last thing they see be the dreaded Trouble River? I know, but the question is do you? ~ *Rachel will be a 6th grade student at Delaware Academy in September