Cabin on Trouble Creek by Jean Van Leeuwen has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine.
Cabin on Trouble Creek by Jean Van Leeuwen has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine.
Eleven-year-old Daniel Griffith and his 9-year-old brother, Will, journey to the woods of Ohio with their pa in late summer, 1803. They help Pa build a rough log cabin before Pa returns to Pennsylvania to collect the rest of the family. He promises to return in five or six weeks. The boys busy themselves patching up holes in the cabin, chopping wood, collecting nuts for winter and learning to fish. Weeks pass, then months, with no sign of Pa or the family. Daniel, whom Pa has left in charge, begins to wonder how the boys will survive a harsh winter alone.
The boys learn to think critically and use ingenuity to overcome their difficult circumstances. They meet an old Indian named Solomon, who teaches them to pay close attention to nature and avoid danger. Solomon leaves before winter, but Daniel and Will incorporate his lessons into their lives. They learn to create snares and spears to catch food, use skins and plants to sew warm winter clothing and find their way back home when they get lost. Wolves kill a deer outside of their cabin, leaving the boys a fair amount of meat for the cold, intense winter. They use wood and some of the deer skin to fashion snowshoes so they can leave the cabin even in waist-deep snow.
Solomon returns in the spring. He’s impressed with what the boys have accomplished and visits occasionally to teach them more. He tells the boys he had returned to his old home where he saw the damage and killing white men had done. With a sad heart, he decides to go find the remnant of his people.
Again, the boys are alone. It is April, and they decide they should prepare to plant crops. They undertake the arduous task of clearing trees for a field. One day, as they take a break to gather some herbs, they encounter a bear. Will tries to escape by climbing a tree, but the bear comes after him. In an effort to save his brother, Daniel throws his bucket of herbs at the bear, angering it. It attacks and badly injures Daniel before Will manages to wound it with his homemade fishing spear.
Over many days, Will nurses Daniel back to health, treating his wounds with plants Ma had used and Solomon had once pointed out. By June, Daniel has healed and the boys have cleared enough land to plant a crop. They’re preparing to begin when they hear the voice of their brother Zeke. The rest of their family is close behind. They explain that illness prevented them from coming sooner. The boys’ parents are proud and impressed by the way their sons have managed themselves and have created a home during their long months alone. The family enjoys a reunion dinner and decides to begin planting the next day.
Solomon was given a biblical name because he was at a mission as a baby. The only book Daniel’s family owns is a Bible. While the boys are stuck inside during cold winter months, they tell each other Bible stories they remember. They have heard them so many times, they know them by heart. They tell each other about Noah, Joseph, Moses and many others, trying to repeat them the same way Ma always had. Several Bible stories are briefly retold in the text, including the story of Daniel. Will recounts this story after his brother is attacked by a bear, making the Bible character sound like the hero of the tale. Daniel acknowledges God is the hero in the real Bible story, but Daniel thinks Will may be trying to say something about his brother’s bravery during the bear attack. The boys also write down some important phrases and math equations they’ve learned, including verses about Adam and Zaccheus. Ma and Pa praise God that their sons are alive.
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Pa isn’t an affectionate or expressive man, but he tells his sons stories and has provided wise insights that help them survive alone in the wild. The boys often remember his words about carefully thinking things through when they have a problem. Ma has frequently read them Bible stories. Both parents express great pride in their sons’ abilities to survive without them. Solomon teaches the boys many useful skills. He urges them to see and hear the minutia in nature and pay close attention to their surroundings.
A bear attacks Daniel and Will. A couple of young men Daniel meets at the mill call the Indian people “varmints.” They brag about how their father killed many and drove others out of the country.
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Author Jean Van Leeuwen has written over 40 books, many dealing with American history. This story is based on an actual account from Ohio history, recorded in a book called Historical Collections of Ohio by Henry Howe.
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