For a Speck of Gold
Author: Donna Getzinger
Publisher: Denglinger’s Publishers, Ltd.
Publication date: 2002
Robbie Palmerston was living the life of a typical twelve-year-old in 1850. He went to school, apprenticed in the livery and sort of had a girlfriend. And then…his father decided to go west to become a forty-niner. Robbie was furious. He was too young to take care of an entire family by himself, but in those days, it was the job of the eldest son to care for his mother and siblings in the absence of a parent. His father is taking all the money to be earned by selling the livery to finance the trip, so Robbie’s wages will have to support his family. To add to the stress, his mother will have a new baby soon.
Soon after the baby is born and his mother can no longer take in work, Robbie loses his job. So few men are left in town that times are bad. And then they get word that his father has been badly hurt and needs help. Only Robbie can save the family now. After leaving his family in the care of a lonely older man who needs household help, Robbie sets out alone for California to find his father.
This book on a young boy’s look at the gold rush is very realistic. It is not a nice, cleaned up look, so parents should review it first to see if it is suitable for their child. It does have some deaths, including the not-shown hanging of a child’s father. However, it also shows children the real gold rush, rather than the sanitized view they usually get in history books.
One aspect that makes this book especially interesting is that Robbie takes the ship to California, instead of the traditional overland journey. This method of reaching California is seldom shown in children’s books. It may have seemed like the easiest route, but children will soon realize that the ship was in some ways even worse than the overland trip.
Also included is an honest look at the treatment of Asians, as Robbie befriends a young Asian boy. Asians faced great discrimination during the gold rush, and this is openly shown. Children will also be introduced to hydraulic mining instead of the more familiar gold panning, which was no longer in great use by this time.
Getzinger has researched this book in great detail. She wrote the story for her students and kept in mind their abilities and interests. The book has great power and is not a whitewashed, storybook version of what was a very difficult time in history, filled with greed, pain, poverty, sacrifice and violence. This is an outstanding view of the gold rush from a child’s perspective.