Embracing the Elephant
The Saga Begins...
Undeterred by the most dire warnings, in 1848 eleven-year-old Guinevere Walker embarks on a perilous journey to reunite with her widowed father. From her home in Boston she sails to Rio de Janeiro, around Cape Horn, to the rudimentary town of San Francisco -- ultimately arriving at the California mountain range called the Sierra Nevada, known for both its beauty and brutality.
Embracing the Elephant is a powerful story of one child coming of age at precisely the moment a nation enters its own new age. Against the backdrop of the most massive human migration the world has ever known, the California Gold Rush of 1848, one young girl and fortune hunters from around the globe flood into the burgeoning territory to “See the Elephant” – to experience a great adventure, dig for a golden fortune, face the harshest realities, and search for personal truths. Embracing the Elephant is a tale of fierce determination, resilience, discovery, and hope.
2015 IAN Historical Book of the Year Finalist
***
Embracing the Elephant is Volume One of the four-part series, Embracing the Elephant.