Blood on the River
By Elisa Carbone
The Book Blood On The River by Elisa Carbone is a book about a boy named Samuel Collier. Samuel is an orphan. Then Reverend Hunt gets Samuel to go on a journey to the New World. The trip is very hard. There are lots of storms and there is not that much room. Once they get to the new world the Indians are onto them. They get attacked a lot to be on very high guard. Then Captain Smith becomes president, and soon they are in peace with the Indians. But they are getting sick and dying. The Virginia company sends more and more people, and soon there is barely any room to walk. Then one time the indians attack and Captain Smith gets badly injured and Richard escorts him back to England. The new president is captain Ratcliffe. Then a new ruler is comes to Jamestown. He is reckless and destroys all of the Indians properties. Soon Chief Powhatan Dies and the Powhatan empire crumbles. Samuel Collier grows up to be an amazing man.
At the beginning of the story Samuel is selfish and doesn’t care much about anyone else. But on the boat ride to the new world Samuel is forced to open up his heart. And soon Samuel has friends. Then in the new world the indians attack and James dies. Samuel then needs friends to rely on with James dead. And in peace with the indians, Samuel is soon very good friends with some of the indian people. John Laydon gets married and Samuel act as if he was part of the family. Samuel steals a baby and gets arrested. But is soon he is released because they get word that the indians attack, and they realised Samuel stole the baby because he was trying to save her. And Samuel is freed. I think that in the beginning Samuel didn’t want to be friends with anyone but in the end he is open to any friendship.
I learned that in colonial times everybody had to work very hard because if they didn’t then there wouldn’t be enough resources and they could all die. I learned about how the Native Americans live and what strategies they used back then. I learned that without Jamestown everybody would have died. Blood On The River is like the research we have been doing in class because both of them say that it was very disgusting and not comfortable in Colonial days. It was uncomfortable and disgusting on the boat ride to the New World. And in our class research we read a book about the disgusting things people did in colonial times. Also in our class research it said that the homes were usually very cold and there was not that much furniture.
I really loved the book Blood On The River. I think that it had amazing characters and it had a very interesting story. I would recommend this book to my mom and my dad because they both like books and it is a very interesting book with a very cool story.