Adventure on the Wilderness Road, 1775

Every­one warns of Indi­an ambush­es as Eliz­a­beth Poage, her moth­er, father, and four broth­ers and sis­ters begin the dan­ger­ous trip west­ward by foot and pack­horse to Daniel Boone’s new set­tle­ment in Ken­tucky. But the only thing both­er­ing eleven-year-old Eliz­a­beth is her brat­ty younger sis­ter, Martha—Pa’s favorite.

Things start look­ing up when anoth­er fam­i­ly with girls Eliz­a­beth’s age joins the car­a­van. Eliz­a­beth, the only one who can read and write, entrances the new­com­ers by read­ing aloud from her pre­cious copy of Gul­liv­er’s Trav­els. All the children—even Martha—crowd around to lis­ten to the fan­tas­tic tale.

Inspired, Eliz­a­beth records the remark­able events of her own jour­ney: the harsh climb over moun­tains, across rivers, and through hos­tile Indi­an ter­ri­to­ry, the near-death of her baby sis­ter, and the family’s ter­ri­fy­ing encounter with the Indi­ans. Eliz­a­beth believes she’s ready for anything—until Martha dis­ap­pears. Then, with­out think­ing, she races into the sav­age wilder­ness to find the sis­ter she tried not to love…