The Wind Wagon

Anne Hutchings is an elementary-school teacher-librarian in Ajax,
Ontario.

In the mid-1800s, scores of settlers headed westward in search of gold,
silver, and other treasures. Most packed their worldly possessions into
large lumbering oxcarts, known as prairie schooners, and made their way
slowly and ponderously across the prairie.

Not so Sam Peppard, a blacksmith living in the Kansas Territory town of
Oskaloosa. Sam decided to harness the power of the wind to blow him
across the prairie to the silver mines of Denver. Thus was born Sam
Peppard’s “Wind Wagon.”

This rollicking tale of Yankee ingenuity is sure to be a hit with 7- to
9-year-olds. Daniel Clifford’s humorous illustrations are the perfect
complement to a book that could be used in many areas of the school
curriculum—history (pioneers), science (wind, inventors, and
inventions), and language arts (tall tales), to suggest just a few.
Highly recommended.