The untamed West holds a great fascination for many children and adults and few icons of the era have the cache of the Pony Express. A single brave rider heads out from St. Joseph, Missouri on a fast horse on April 3, 1860, while a single rider leaves Sacramento at the same time. Thus begins a brief but glorious time in American history.
Readers of this non-fiction picture book, targeted for younger elementary grades, will discover that the Pony Express marked the first time mail could be delivered by hand from the East to the West and that it cost $5.00 to send a letter ($110 in today's dollars). The value of the Pony Express was that the mail could make it from Missouri to California in just eleven days instead of several months. While the story is short--the Pony Express lasted only 18 months, ending when the transcontinental telegraph line was completed in October 1861--it demonstrates the "can do" spirit of American ingenuity. This beautiful book, illustrated by Houstonian Layne Johnson, recounts the day-by-day experiences of the first riders who faced bad weather, hostile Indians, skittish animals, and loneliness and fatigue to keep the mail moving. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Pony Express.
Jeanette Larson, Books Editor, teaches children’s literature for the School of Library & Information Studies at Texas Woman’s University
