This month I reread a book called By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleischman. The book is about a boy named Jack and his butler, Praiseworthy, and their adventures in California during the Gold Rush time period. Jack is trying to save his aunt’s home, in which where he lives, due too their inheritance being almost gone. This caused Jack with the decision to go to California in search of gold, as Jack and Praiseworthy try to buy a ticket for a ship going to California they are robbed and are left penniless. This is the reason why Praiseworthy and Jack had to go as stowaways. When they reach California they have no money which causes Praiseworthy to come up with an idea to give miners free haircuts, then they wash out the hairs in search of a little bit of gold. With gold they got from the haircuts they travel to Sacramento where they would start panning for gold. Later into the book they struck it rich and find a huge gold nugget before returning however they run into their last conflict. Praiseworthy is scheduled to fight with the Mountain Ox as he challenges him due to an earlier incident where Praiseworthy had taken out a gang of robbers. Praiseworthy wins the fight and him and Jack are on their way to the seaside village where they landed the boat sinks less than a mile away causing both Jack and Praiseworthy to loose all their gold. However as a last attempt to get rich they sell cats that are found aboard the ship they came from and quickly get rich as rats where a major problem for shop owners. As the Story ends they try to find a ship when Aunt Arabella and Jack’s sisters get off a ship, they decided to sell the house and come to California too. Praiseworthy asks Aunt Arabella to be his wife and she accepts and they decide to make California a place for both women and children. I loved this book due to the amount of action that is presented and I love how the author makes the reader feel like you are with them in the book. I also loved how the author described many characters even though they aren’t too important to the plot. Overall By the Great Horn Spoon is a quick read that doesn’t have hard vocabulary and is pretty straight forward, this book does a great job describing the Gold Rush even though it was made more than a century later. My favorite character from the book was Praiseworthy because of his bravery, a quote that explains this is, “His chest looked as big around as a flour barrel…’I wish we’d never come back here,’ Jack muttered. ‘It’s not a fair match, no sir.’ ‘You want me to back out?’…’You gave your word. You have to stick by it.’ ‘That right. And anyway, I intend to lick him.'” This quote shoes that Praiseworthy isn’t backing out even though his opponent is much larger and stronger than him, it shows he stand up to nearly impossible odds and shows the risk he is taking. This makes me think that Praiseworthy is honorable and brave. My favorite quote from the book is, “The gold revealed itself like bits of sunlight trapped in the loosened earth. The two partners flung their hats in the air. In sheer exuberance they clasped arms and swung around and around in the oblong pit.” This is my favorite line due to the duo finally getting the gold they need to help make money for Aunt Arabella’s house. I also loved how they used the personification and simile together to create an amazing sentence. I think By the Great Horn Spoon is an amazing novel that everyone should read, it is a perfect way to learn more about the Gold Rush and a really fun read.