Ranger in Time (Rescue
on the Oregon Trail) by Kate Messner
(Scholastic Books, 2015, 144 pages, $5.99, ages 7-10, grade, 2-5)
Rescue on the Oregon Trail is the first of the “Ranger in Time” books (of at
least ten). From Oregon, Ranger the golden retriever goes back and forth in
time to a different time and place in each book: in subsequent books, he is
transported from ancient Rome to the South
Pole to travels with Vikings to the San Francisco earthquake to D-Day
to Katrina to the Titanic and then the Revolution. That’s a travelin’ dog!
How?
Ranger hears a humming sound
and unearths a first aid kit in the garden of the backyard that he shares with
his boy Luke. When he sticks his head under the humming kit’s strap, he is
transported far far away in both time and place. And, being the clever little
canine that he is, he manages to find a family to call his own, temporarily,
but there is always trouble brewing and Ranger trots from one person or crisis
to another, always saving the day.
As Good as the “Magic Treehouse” Series
When the Big Crisis is
averted, Ranger manages to find the old humming first aid kit and wriggle his
head around to wear the kit and presto, he is back in his own backyard with his boy
Luke.
Ranger Goes Where Ranger is Needed
The Ranger books tell a
human and a canine side of history by way of several adventures in each book
but they also relate the importance of patience and family love and loyalty –
even if there are two families. When Ranger manages to help the temporary
family he knows it is time to return to the present day (and to his Luke ) but
the return is bittersweet: he will miss the time, place and his new friends and
family but he knows he leaves them better off – Ranger goes where Ranger is
needed. And, as a bonus, the reader not only learns about an exciting epoch in
history but learns some new facts as well!
Rescue on the Oregon Trail
On the Oregon Trail in the
year 1850, families walked alongside their covered wagons. They ran into wildly
stampeding, dangerous buffalo herds and some travelers even suffered from new
illnesses like cholera.
There were incidents of lost
children and Ranger gets to round people up, like a good Border Collie should.
He learns new uses for
buffalo chips and saves his new boy Sam by chasing away a rattlesnake, but as
much as he loves his new family and Sam, Ranger keeps thinking of his boy Luke
and his home back home and wonders when he will have done enough good work to
return.
Next on our list is Ranger in Time: Long Road to Freedom to
visit Maryland during the Civil War. Hey, maybe Ranger will even meet Harriet
Tubman!
And look for Ranger - 9/11,
coming out next year.
and that father ducks often guard the nest so the
mother duck can take a break from sitting and sitting and sitting on her duck
nest. Then the father is off again to do 'duck stuff.'
