WHITE OX

From the vivid cover art—a ragged young girl runs, silhouetted against an orange sky—to the last double-page spread of the same child staring out across the Rocky Mountains she has just crossed as part of the great 19th-century Mormon migration, the art is the star of this book. Hailstone’s serviceable narrative describes the real-life journey of ten-year-old Emily Swain Squires (her great-great grandmother), who traveled ahead of her family from England to Salt Lake City around 1863. During the hardest part of the journey, walking across the plains, she befriended a weary white ox, which gave her enough strength to complete the long trek. Burr uses a digital version of oil painting in Photoshop, applied to a traditional surface, to create 15 stunning and dramatic spreads that appear historically accurate in every detail. Children will be swept up by the lovely art and the tale of Emily’s remarkable journey. A foreword provides background on the Mormons and Emily’s circumstances at the time of the journey. (Picture book. 7-10)