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As a reading instruction tealcher for over 20 years I was very pleased to read a book that I can recommend to a young group . Keeps them interested while teaching history, culture and adventure ! No sexual content or foul language...refreshing for a change. I look forward to the next book by Paul and it will be on my gift list for grandkids.
Great book for 5th grade up.
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The author was able to successfully blend in an interesting story line with factual events in describing the emigration of his family ancestors from Switzerland to America. The pace of the story was realistic enough to make it an exciting read with a personal touch that made the characters believable.
Enjoyable story line from a historical event
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This book is easy to read, but captures the reader's attention by providing realistic details of traveling by coach in 1845 from the Swiss Alps to the German seaside. One could almost smell the horses pulling the coaches and visualize the hardships of coach drivers and horses as they survived the arduous trip over 500 miles. Then, the realistic details shift to traveling on a large sailship to New Orleans as the captain and young Nick Hoffman befriend each other. Crossing the Atlantic was different from cruising today. It was perilous as travelers faced the raging sea, weather hazards, and deadly illnesses that took lives along the way. The Hoffman parents indeed depended upon their Creator in everyday living and taught their children to become faithful as well. I was surprised, however, to find the addition of ghosts in the story, especially since the book is woven with Biblical principles, which do not suggest interfacing with such phenomena. Nonetheless, I became tranquilized as I traveled on the coach alongside the driver and rolled with the waves next to the ship captain as he tried his best to keep the ship sailing in the right direction.
Lastly, the book does not address politics or racism, which is so prevalent in today's literary output.
Allows the reader to become part of the voyage
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This is an exceptionally realistic telling of the a real immigration story of a family as they travel from Switzerland to America. Nick was a curious boy ready for adventure. As the story unfolds, the details make you feel as though you are the 8th family member. You feel the trepidation of leaving everything and everyone as you make out for a new land. You experience every fear, each danger, and the relief and assurance as each time God answers their prayers. You follow this family from their home to Bremen, Germany by coach, and from there to the mouth of the Mississippi at New Orleans on the Grace Brown where the story ends. Because of the relationship you have built with the Hoffmans you are left wanting to know what happens as they step off the ship and set their feet upon the great country of America. I'm eager for the next volume!
One person found this helpful
An 1845 immigration journey through the eyes of a 10 year old boy, Nick Hoffman
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I liked that the author made you feel as though you were right there with the Hoffman family experiencing the world as it was in 1845. I love that the humanity of these people was on display and I could relate to what they were feeling.
I felt fear when they said goodbye to friends and neighbors and left the only world they knew behind, trusting that God would protect them on that dangerous journey to life in a new land, as so many did in the Great Emigration that occurred in the 19th Century.
I was carried away to a different time when people fell in love and courted with the part of the story about Francis, Jacob, and Margaret's 16-year-old daughter falling in love with the young handsome blond-haired coach driver Abelard who realizes the feeling is mutual. To court her he must come to America with the Hoffman family.
Then there is Nick Hoffman whom this story is about whose eyes see the world around him, not like other boys of his time. His curiosity, desire for adventure, and new relationships bring life to new characters in the story like Mr. Bieri the old coach driver from St Gallen to Stuttgart. Mr. Egger, the sailor on the Grace Brown sailing ship that the Hoffman family sails to America on, befriends Nick and teaches him to steer and sail the ship by compass.
This is an easy book to read. You will be carried into their world feeling the sway of the coach and the power and beauty of the horses that pulled it to the sway and rolling of the Grace Brown on a journey back in time.
I highly recommend this book for children and most definitely adults too. I am looking forward to the next book and Adventure of Nick Hoffman.
What a story full of Adventure, HistoryBecky Z
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I recommend this book because it’s full of adventure, family, and religion. I enjoyed how the author was very detailed. He gave a lot of description for what the characters are thinking, seeing, and saying. The story made me feel like I was really there. The book is a page turner, because every chapter is a new adventure.
A page turner full of adventures
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I recommend this book because it’s full of adventure, family, and religion. I enjoyed how the author was very detailed. He gave a lot of description for what the characters are thinking, seeing, and saying. The story made me feel like I was really there. The book is a page turner, because every chapter is a new adventure.
“
I liked the fact that the author made you feel as though you were right there with the Hoffman family experiencing the world as it was in 1845. I love that the humanity of these people was on display and I could relate to what they were feeling.
I felt fear when they said goodbye to friends and neighbors and left the only world they knew behind, trusting that God would protect them on that dangerous journey to life in a new land, as so many did in the Great Emigration that occurred in the 19th Century.
I was carried away to a different time when people fell in love and courted with the part of the story about Francis, Jacob, and Margaret's 16-year-old daughter falling in love with the young handsome blond-haired coach driver Abelard who realizes the feeling is mutual. To court her he must come to America with the Hoffman family.
Then there is Nick Hoffman whom this story is about whose eyes see the world around him, not like other boys of his time. His curiosity, desire for adventure, and new relationships bring life to new characters in the story like Mr. Bieri the old coach driver from St Gallen to Stuttgart. Mr. Egger, the sailor on the Grace Brown sailing ship that the Hoffman family sails to America on, befriends Nick and teaches him to steer and sail the ship by compass.
This is an easy book to read. You will be carried into their world feeling the sway of the coach and the power and beauty of the horses that pulled it to the sway and rolling of the Grace Brown on a journey back in time.
I highly recommend this book for children and most definitely adults too. I am looking forward to the next book and Adventure of Nick Hoffman.
“
This book is easy to read but captures the reader's attention by providing realistic details of traveling by coach in 1845 from the Swiss Alps to the German seaside. One could almost smell the horses pulling the coaches and visualize the hardships of coach drivers and horses as they survived the arduous trip over 500 miles. Then, the realistic details shift to traveling on a large sail ship to New Orleans as the captain and young Nick Hoffman befriend each other. Crossing the Atlantic was different from cruising today. It was perilous as travelers faced the raging sea, weather hazards, and deadly illnesses that took lives along the way. The Hoffman parents indeed depended upon their Creator in everyday living and taught their children to become faithful as well. I was surprised, however, to find the addition of ghosts in the story, especially since the book is woven with Biblical principles, which do not suggest interfacing with such phenomena. Nonetheless, I became tranquilized as I traveled on the coach alongside the driver and rolled with the waves next to the ship captain as he tried his best to keep the ship sailing in the right direction.
Lastly, the book does not address politics or racism, which is so prevalent in today's literary output.
“
This is an exceptionally realistic telling of a real immigration story of a family as they travel from Switzerland to America. Nick was a curious boy ready for adventure. As the story unfolds, the details make you feel as though you are the 8th family member. You feel the trepidation of leaving everything and everyone as you make out for a new land. You experience every fear, each danger, and the relief and assurance as each time God answers their prayers. You follow this family from their home to Bremen, Germany by coach, and from there to the mouth of the Mississippi at New Orleans on the Grace Brown where the story ends. Because of the relationship you have built with the Hoffmans you are left wanting to know what happens as they step off the ship and set foot upon the great country of America. I'm eager for the next volume!
“
I liked all the details of the family with coaches and horses. The people they met on the way were interesting. The family were so loving and included God in all their daily life. Nick was certainly adventurous and liked by everyone. Francis and Abelard loved each other from the first moment they met. I am anxious to read the next series to see where in America they land and what they do to make a living.
