From Booklist
Gr. 1-4. This is a handsome book, no doubt about it, and at first the story seems amazing. In 1905, eight-year-old Harriet Logan climbed more than 14,000 feet to the summit of Colorado's Longs Peak. Guiding her was Enos Mills, an early advocate for making the area a national park. Also with her was her father, both of them endeavoring to honor Harriet's deceased mother, who dreamed of making the climb. Pa doesn't make it, but Harriet struggles to the top, and as Mills promises, sees many surprises along the way, capped by the view from the summit, where Harriet feels "high as a hawk." It's hard to imagine artwork more perfect than Lewin's to chronicle this remarkable journey. Sweeping vistas, tinted with just the right light, are juxtaposed against near-photographic depictions of Harriet and Mills forging their way up the mountain. The book concludes with an author's note, and suddenly, almost everything readers thought to be true is in question. Harriet and Mills did make the climb, but was it because of Harriet's mother? Was her father really along? Who took the photo of Harriet and Mills at the summit? Barron gives few clues, almost writing around the logical questions ("While I have used some poetic license, the story's historical basis in their successful climb is accurate"). Then he thanks Mills' and Harriet's descendants, but what they contributed, he doesn't say. This may be historical fiction, but a few more facts wouldn't have hurt. Ilene Cooper
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