Walking Up a Rainbow

Set in 1852, this adventure novel follows Susan Carlisle, a fourteen-year-old orphan in Iowa, who inherits a flock of two thousand sheep and a crushing debt. To save her home from a villainous debt collector, she persuades a tough drover and his crew to drive the herd across the continent to California, a journey that tests her resilience and resourcefulness. The narrative captures the rugged realities of overland travel during the mid-nineteenth century, blending historical detail with the fast-paced momentum of a young protagonist’s quest for independence and survival.

Description adapted from Open Library ↗.