By the Great Hornspoon! Paperback – April 30, 1988

By the Great Horn Spoon! is a hit with my 4th grade students. They love the adventure, humor, and fast-paced plot. It’s a great way to spark interest in historical fiction and the Gold Rush era. It ties nicely with the 4th Grade curriculum on California history. Highly recommended for upper elementary classrooms.

Needed this book for a Co Op reading with my 6th grader. We had such a blast reading this! Such a fun one to read. And shipping was quick!

Cleverly written, fun to read, and a great way to bring the California gold rush to life. Highly recommend!

Way back when I was ten or so, By the Great Horn Spoon! was the first Sid Fleischman book I ever encountered. My mom read it aloud to my brother and I, and we laughed and laughed and laughed over it.A few years ago, I read this aloud to my own kids. We also laughed a lot over it. I reread it again this week because I'm using it in a literature class for 3rd-5th grades that I'm teaching. And I laughed again. What a rollicking good adventure this is!It's a tall tale in the grand tradition of American storytelling, and I love it very much. It not only made me laugh aloud while reading it over again this week, it even made me get tears in my eyes when I hit the very last three lines. Wonderful stuff.

Seems a bit far-fetched at times.

OMG! That was the greatest book I have ever read. It was so funny, especially when Jack said, “By the great horn spoon.” It is funny, but you can also learn about the Gold Rush. The main characters are Jack and Praiseworthy, but then there are more people like Aunt Arabella, Sarah, and Constance. If you are okay with spoilers then read this, if you don’t, then skip this. At the end Praiseworthy and Aunt Arabella got married! I love the book and I think you will too. If you are learning about the gold rush, then this is a great book for that. If you want to read this book, it is called “By the Great Horn Spoon.”

That there Eastern young feller, Jack, stows away with the devoted family butler, Praiseworthy, and sails to California's gold fields in search of fortune. A well-written adventure that captures the difficulty of sailing around South America to get to California, and some of the perils, both natural and human, once the duo arrive there. Nineteenth century San Francisco is also among the settings. The two meet up with a variety of fellow gold country folks, both on the up-and-up and distinctly underhanded. Brawns and brains both have prominent roles in good ways, as do caring and hard work. Moments of good humor add much, particularly the nicknames given to Jack and Praiseworthy and those of the other 49ers. There are a number of interesting insights on social relationships, particularly the butler's pride and obligations to his position. Strongly recommended for California fourth graders responsible for state study in social studies, but anyone around that age, or older for that matter, is going to enjoy it, too. Its heart-warming ending only makes it all the better.

My son loved getting a front row seat into life during California's gold rush. He enjoyed the characters and the story and finished it very quickly and happilly.