Dear America, My America, I am America...all of these book series bring to light important events in American history for younger readers in a way that is both educational and accessible. In this story, a young, enslaved Virginia girl is sent west on the Oregon Trail to assist her master with the journey on his way to seeking gold in California. She is fortunate enough to be sent along with her mother and father, which is a nice aspect of the story, but questionably realistic. Along the way, the reader learns quite a bit about Westward Expansion, the journey along the trail, and the questions and issues that faced enslaved people as they moved out of slave territory. The Dred Scott case is included in the text, but without its eventual resolution. This would be a good book to get kids interested in this aspect of history, from a different perspective than the norm, but I would use it as the carrot, a jumping off point for further research. And we will. :)