When Robert Louis Stevenson learned that the woman he loved was ill, he immediately began making plans to come to America from Scotland as quickly as he could. Because he had very little money, he chose the cheapest way to travel. Stevenson traveled across the ocean on a steamer ship to New York. Once on land, he would take a series of train rides where he was forced to endure three thousand miles of dust and smoke and swaying passenger cars. On this difficult route, Stevenson would meet the people, see the places, and eperience the history of a changing new world that would affect his life forever.

This book is published by scholastic and intended for children. The writing is simple but the content is well organized, well researched and fascinating. There were dozens of black and white photographs taken at the time Robert Louis Stevenson was traveling. A map on the inside cover shows the train route that Stevenson took. Excerpts from Stevenson’s travel journal as well as excerpts from the writings of many other people who lived during the time that Stevenson was making his journey are included. Published in 1993 when people still cared about teaching children history. This book addresses many issues in a compassionate and factual way. These issues include immigration, treatment of Native Americans, the Chinese railroad workers and many other issues.

This book was left in the Little Free Library. It was released for the March 2021 Oh, the Places We Can Go release challenge and the Celebrate the Irish release challenge. (Murphy is an Irish name.) It was also released for the Never Judge A Book by its Cover release challenge (Picture of trains on the cover). It was also released for the 2021 4 Elements release challenge (rain).