- NCTE Orbis Pictus Award
- The Jefferson Cup Award
- An ALA Notable Children’s Book
- An ALA Booklist Editor’s Choice
- A SLJ Best Book of the Year
- Horn Book Fanfare
- A Notable Children’s Trade Book in the Field of Language Arts
- A Notable Children’s Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies
- Book Links Salutes “A Few Good Books”
“History at its best.”
—Kirkus (starred)
“As he did in The Boys’ War and The Long Road to Gettysburg, Murphy draws on memoirs and letters to humanize history. Facts and feelings tell a compelling story of adventure and failure, courage and cruelty, enrichment and oppression. The experience of ordinary people revitalizes the myths of the West.”
—Booklist (starred)
“Into [Stevenson’s] journal entries, Murphy has woven meticulously researched, absorbing accounts of the building of the railroad and its effect on the territory it crossed: the disruption and destruction of Native American life, the slaughter of the buffalo, accidents, the development of the Pullman car, the towns that quickly came and vanished as the construction crews moved on, the snow sheds built to protect the trains in the Sierra Nevada mountains.”
—School Library Journal (starred)