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Rating: 
Summary: A girl and her family head west in 1883.
Review: In the spring of 1883, fourteen-year-old Teresa Viscardi and her large Italian-American family, which includes her, her younger brother and sister, her parents, her aunt, uncle, cousin, and grandmother, leave their home in New York City and decide to head west to Idaho to participate in the founding of a utopian community. The community is to be called Opportunity, but Teresa isn't of the feeling that the west is filled with opportunity. She wants to return to New York City, where her friends and home are. Instead, she's stuck, first on a crowded train, and then on a covered wagon caravan, with her annoying family, of which her grandmother and sister are the most annoying. Nanna is stubbornly traditional, and pesky Netta reads Teresa's private diary. But when tragedy strikes, Teresa realizes how much her family means to her, and she may be the only one who can save them from disaster. I highly reccomend this excellant addition to the Dear America series. It's a great read if you like historical fiction, stories about pioneer life, or the other books in the series.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrible, terrible book.
Review: This is, without a doubt, the worst dear america ever! The protagonaist complains WAY to much. The author also never explains who people are. Your left to guess there relationship with teresa. Usually you can get a halfway decenat idea of whjo the heck they are, but often your left with no clue. I gusee this is suppose to make the book feel more realesitc and diary like, but it jsut gets irritating. Now, you'd think this piece of garbage couldn't get any worse. How wrong you are! The author, it seems, had the brigh idea to kill off the ONLY interesting charecter. (I'm not goining to identify who, though actually mabye I should give it away just to prvent people from tourtering themselves with this book.) Aparently this is supposed to add to the "drama" Actally, it just seems to make the book boringer then this book already is. The president of the United States could be attacked by a herd of raging bunny rabbits and this book stil wouln't be any more interesting. Why couldn't the author kill off Teresa? Belive me, the world would be a much better place without her. Or, better yet, the author could maybe kill off the 20,000 charecrers he never
identifies. Maybe then we might actually learn who they are! Now grantend, I never actually finished this book. I've tried many times, but I just end up getting frustrated and giving up in discut. I usually end up watching Barney or somthing. You know, a show with plot. Maybe at the end somthing interesing happens (though actally the only good thing that can happen to this book is Teresa falling off a stgecoach and dying or somthing.) To put it lightly, this book SUCKS. I don't mean to critcze the people who read this book and enjoyed, but sonmthing must be wrong if you liked it. I mean,I'm sure your very nice normal people in real life, but you must have really bad judgemnt in books. And the editor who let this be published must as well.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite Dear America books
Review: This was one of the most enjoyable books in the Dear America series. Fourteen-year-old Teresa Viscardi, while on a history-making trek West to "Opportunity", still experiences ordinary things. She tries to keep her nosy little sister Netta away from her diary, she makes a new best friend, takes care of her baby brother Tomas, and gets a crush on the handsome John Anderson. Then everything changes when Teresa's father and uncle leave the trail and go off on a "get-rich-quick" scheme. One of her brothers, Ernesto, falls deathly ill. With her grandmother, Teresa goes in search of her father, and finds him. They travel back to the wagon to find that Ernesto is fine, but one of her other family members has passed away from the same illness. Teresa now addresses her diary to her lost loved one, and it helps her to handle her grief. I liked how realistic this book was--instead of having a, "everything was just fine and great" type ending, the 3 page epilouge tells how the family arrived at their destination and made a home for themselves by hard work, and how Teresa, after some years of schoolteaching, finds her true love not to be John Anderson but a man she meets in Opportunity.
Rating:
Summary: One of My Favorites
Review: Though this wasn't really a historical event, something may of happened like this. The writer mentions that between 1870-1900 was when most communities were being born, so that's the main idea of the story. This is about Teresa Angelino Viscardi, a 14 year old Italian Immigrant. She travels with her large family on a train and by wagon all the way to Idaho territory. But the journey is not easy. It is FAR from easy. They cross a river and two girl's from another wagon drown. Then the saddest thing happens! But you have to read it of course. This diary was so well written I kept thinking that Teresa and Netta, her little sister, who you come to love, were real. This is another powerfully emotionaly and exciting, and truthful Dear America Diary. Keep up the good work Dear America writers! We can't wait for more. Even though this book is sad, you MUST READ IT! Sniffle, sniffle, sob, sob. :(But most of the journey was :)
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