Throwback Thursday: A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple (Mayflower, 1620)

Thanksgiving Reading

1996

A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple (Mayflower, 1620) is the story of a young pilgrim girl making her way across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World with her family. I thought this book would be really appropriate for my Thanksgiving edition of Throwback Thursday! I remember this series from when I was in elementary school, this book came out while I was in 4th grade just discovering Backstreet Boys, *NSync, and Spice Girls! I read a few of the books from the Dear America series, but I don't remember which ones, it was so long ago. There's only one I'm entirely sure I read and it's not this one. I'll likely work my way through the series again for various Throwback Thursdays and the books can be found on Amazon used for about $4.00, which is the great thing about older books!

This was actually the first in the Dear America series, but in my opinion not such a good start. I think this was probably one of the books I read when I was 10 to help me feel better about my life. This book was so depressing, ugh! Basically all Remember does is catalog every person who died either on the Mayflower or while settling Plymouth. There's hardly any story outside of "x person died today" or "x person is very ill, hopefully they won't die soon" (they almost always do die). So, that's a lot of death. In case you aren't familiar with the story of the Mayflower, the pilgrims weren't exactly the healthiest or luckiest brood.

As usual, I found myself annoyed with the Puritan's society too. They were so uptight and judgmental no wonder the Church of England didn't like them! I know it goes way beyond just the Puritan's personalities, but seriously, ugh. Perfect example, would be how Remember puts down the ways of Dutch people. The pilgrims fled to Holland and then she wants to bitch about what the Dutch do on the Sabbath? Really? If you  don't like Holland then GTFO. I guess that's what the pilgrims did... but it's just the principle of it. I wouldn't flee to a foreign country because my own country wants to execute my people and then stick my nose up at that country's culture and customs. 

I'm getting upset about a fictional person, I know.

The story did get a bit better after they found the New World and people for the most part gradually stopped dying, or Remember just had other things to write about. I remember this series being really good so I hope this one is just a fluke. I'm trying to determine if I didn't like it because I'm 27 and not 11 anymore, but that can't be it because there's plenty of books I re-read from my childhood and they're just as good to me now as then.

I'm giving A Journey to the New World 2 out of 5 stars.