Alone: The Journey of the Boy Sims

by: Alan K. Garinger

Published by: Indiana Historical Society Press

Reviewed by Connie Anderson

This historical fiction for middle readers, young adults and adults is about a 13-year-old Joshua Sim’s 500-mile round trip walk from Indiana to Detroit to get a certain kind of long-lasting ink needed for mapmaking.

Both of Joshua parents were dead; mother from illness and the heartbreak of having to leave her Virginia home because her husband wanted to go west to homestead. The father died after being gored by a bull. Before the father dies, he makes Joshua promise he’ll save the homestead, which means he has to make money to finish the payments.

That’s how Sims became part of a survey and road building crew in Indiana. He was a most resourceful lad and listened carefully to any advice people gave him of how to survive. The idea that a young teen could be sent on such a journey makes sense when we realized that then children took on adult duties much earlier.

The very interesting people that he met on his month-long journey tell us much about the times. He came across a group of runaway slaves, and then later met the bounty hunters after them. He met a mountain man whose cabin he used to be safe from an October ice storm. A fascinating, educated Native American man saved his life.

The story is also about the strength of each of these people and how Sims learned to like them as people, when against all the stereotypes, prejudices and preconceived fears he had about these groups: The Irish, runaway slaves, Native Americans, canal builders, and other loners.

Get your middle reader or young adult to put away something electronic and go back to 1833. Read the book yourself and you will have some most interesting conversations. These are the people who developed our country and made tremendous sacrifices.

I enjoyed this story very much. The hardship of 1830 was the focus–weather, food, homesteading and then farming that land, no easy way to get places, etc. The author is an educator and has received a Young Hoosier (Indiana) Reader nomination for an earlier book.

The glossary at the back was most helpful to better understand terms.

Armchair Interviews says: This book could open up some interesting conversations with your children.