High Trail to Danger

Author: Joan Lowery Nixon.

Publisher: Bantam Books.

Pages: 168.

Price: $15.

High Trail to Danger is a long, boring trail to an unexpected cliffhanger.

As the story begins, Sarah Lindley and her younger sister, Susannah, have just experienced the death of their mother, who owned a boarding house.

When their greedy Aunt Cora and Uncle Amos unlawfully seize the boarding house shortly after their mother's tragic death, Sarah and her sister feel cheated:

"We can't allow Uncle Amos and Aunt Cora to take everything away from us. We have rights."

"What rights? We're girls, and we're not old enough to provide for ourselves. What Mother had belongs to Father, not to us."

"They weren't thinking about Father when they took over our boarding house."

"They haven't exactly taken it over. They're working to keep the boarding house going. It's our livelihood."

"It's become their livelihood," Susannah insisted."It's their boarding house run their way. They're in Mother's room, even using Mother's things."

So, the sisters decide that Sarah should go out West to find their long-lost father and bring him home, in hopes that he would run the boarding house.

The trip is an exciting adventure for Sarah, who has never experienced life out of her hometown. But it is too long for the reader, who isn't interested in how surprised Sarah is that the vegetables on the train are fresh.

When Sarah finally reaches her destination, it takes her a long time to actually find her father. She discovers that not only is her father not a miner, as she had thought, but he also is not the "savior" who is going to make her life perfect again.

Her father is a gambler, hiding out because he killed someone. When Sarah finally finds him, he is only alive for eight pages of the book, which does not give him enough time to answer all of Sarah's questions.

There are a few rare parts in which the trip is interesting, such as when Jesse James and a group of his outlaws rob the train or when Sarah is nearly shoved off a cliff by someone who hates her father. Overall, this book is unexciting and boring.

I was rather disappointed because I expected more adventure and I really wanted Sarah's father to be the answer to her problems. I am looking forward to reading the next book, A Deadly Promise, where I hope I can determine what the future holds for Sarah and Susannah while also finding the answers to various questions about her father's livelihood.

JOE HUSER, 14