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Jul 15, 2016EmilyEm rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
An apple called the Golden Pippin is at the heart of Chevalier’s latest historic novel. We encounter Johnny Appleseed on his sojourns through early Ohio settlements and plant collector William Lobb in California among the redwood and sequoias. But, it’s the family story of James and Sadie Goodenough and their son Robert that are center stage. Reading this book I thought of a trilogy of books I read in the 1990s about early Ohio by Conrad Richter, including one called ‘The Trees.’ Sure enough, he’s mentioned in her acknowledgements. Some of my own family were early Ohio immigrants. I still think of the density and darkness of the forest they needed to tame and how they kept their sanity. My family went further west just like Robert!