While researching her book American Tall Tales, Mary Pope Osborne read that the legendary scout Kit Carson had married an Arapaho woman and together they had a daughter whom he named Adaline and she called Falling Star. When her mother died, Andaline was sent to live with relatives in St. Louis while her father accompanied The Pathfinder, John C. Fremont, on his trek across the Rockies. This is a fictionalized version of Adaline's life in St. Louis, her harzardous attempt to join her father, and her fortuitous relationship with a mongrel dog. This heart-wrenching, heart-warming book contains background information on the Arapaho and Pawnee Indian tribes, Indian/White relations, one young girl's faith in her father and her determination to be with him, the connections we have to those who have gone before, and the unexpected, serendipitous connections we make with others, both human and canine.
"'Freedom is the best thing to hoard in your bag of possibles."
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