Schooled in etiquette for young ladies of 1854, Miss Jane Peck finds little use for manners during her sea voyage to the Pacific Northwest and while living among the American traders and Chinook Indians of Washington Territory. - (Baker & Taylor)

Schooled in the lessons of etiquette for young ladies of 1854, Miss Jane Peck of Philadelphia finds little use for manners during her long sea voyage to the Pacific Northwest and while living among the American traders and Chinook Indians of Washington Territory. - (Baker & Taylor)

After moving to the Northwest to be with her true love, gentile and proper sixteen-year-old Jane Peck of Philadelphia learns that living in the Washington Territory is something vastly different from her home back east and so must find the strength necessary to meet the many unexpected challenges ahead of her. - (Baker & Taylor)

Sixteen-year-old Jane Peck has ventured to the unknown wilds of the Northwest to wed her childhood idol, William Baldt. But her impeccable training at Miss Hepplewhite's Young Ladies Academy in Philadelphia is hardly preparation for the colorful characters and crude life that await her in Washington Territory.

Thrown upon her wits in the wild, Jane must determine for herself whether she is truly proper Miss Jane Peck of Philadelphia, faultless young lady and fiancÉe, or Boston Jane, as the Chinook dub her, fearless and loyal woman of the frontier.

An exciting new novel from Jennifer L. Holm, author of the Newbery Honor Book Our Only May Amelia.

Booklist Reviews

/*Starred Review*/ Gr. 5-8. The author of Our Only May Amelia (1999) offers another intrepid heroine in this appealing historical novel. Motherless Jane Peck has grown up as a tomboy with her father in 1850s Philadelphia. At the urging of her father's apprentice, William, on whom Jane develops a crush, she begins attending Miss Hepplewhite's Young Ladies Academy, where she studies etiquette, embroidery, and the management of servants in the hope of becoming the sort of woman of whom William will be proud. Later, despite her father's protests, she travels halfway around the world to Shoalwater Bay in Washington Territory to marry William. Unfortunately, her betrothed is nowhere to be found, forcing Jane to bunk with a motley assortment of traders and adventurers while she spends her meager funds tracking down wandering Will. She quickly learns that her finishing-school skills are useless on the frontier, and much of the story's humor derives from Jane's determined efforts to reconcile the precepts she has been taught with the demanding realities of pioneer life. Strong characterizations, meticulous attention to historical details (especially concerning the Chinook Indians), and a perceptive understanding of human nature make this a first-rate story not to be missed. ((Reviewed September 1, 2001))Copyright 2001 Booklist Reviews

Booklist Reviews

Gr. 5-8. Holm continues Jane's adventure-romance, which began in Boston Jane: An Adventure (2001) and continued in Boston Jane: Wilderness Days (2002). In this story Jane's nemesis from her Philadelphia days, Sally Biddle, has arrived in Shoalwater Bay. Sally is up to her usual schemes, trying to isolate Jane from her new female friends and causing trouble between Jane and Jehu, the man Jane loves. Complicating matters, Jane's former fiance William has also returned--to help the governor relocate the Chinook population and to have Jane's homestead claim declared invalid. As always, Holm's characters are skillfully drawn. Readers will identify with the painful results of Sally's dirty tricks and cheer Jane on as she finds the backbone to put Sally in her place. A subplot involving a young girl taken away from her Chinook mother after the death of her white father is also well handled. The author's attention to historical accuracy (some of it involving her own family) is strong, as always, but memorable characters and all-too-believable situations are the real hallmarks of this very satisfying read. ((Reviewed March 1, 2004)) Copyright 2004 Booklist Reviews.

Horn Book Guide Reviews

Jane Peck transforms herself from a hoyden to a refined young lady, then follows her fiancT to the Oregon frontier, where conditions are more primitive than she expects. Predictably, ""Boston Jane"" sheds her useless refinements and adapts to frontier life with the help of the Chinook tribe members, but she is an endearing heroine. Readers who enjoyed [cf2]Charlotte Doyle[cf1] will forgive the uneven telling and enter into Boston Jane's predicament. Copyright 2002 Horn Book Guide Reviews

Horn Book Guide Reviews

Jane's longtime nemesis, Sally Biddle, shows up in Jane's frontier town and makes life miserable for her, taking all her friends and even threatening to take Jane's land claim and the scarred sailor who loves her. Part slapstick situation comedy, part romance, and part historical novel of pioneers and Chinook Indians, this third book in the Boston Jane trilogy will keep readers turning pages. Copyright 2004 Horn Book Guide Reviews.

Horn Book Magazine Reviews

Holm follows her success with Our Only May Amelia with another spunky first-person female protagonist, Miss Jane Peck, who transforms herself from a hoyden to a refined young lady at Miss Hepplewhite's Young Ladies Academy, then follows her fianc to the Oregon frontier, where conditions are rather more primitive than she had expected. The shipboard death of her companion Mary is immediately followed by a farcical and somewhat strident account of Jane's attempts to practice "Etiquette, Embroidery, Watercolors, Music, and...Conversational French" among the rough frontiersmen and native Chinook tribe members, creating an odd mismatch between story and tone remedied only slightly by the return of Mary's ghost to haunt the guilt-ridden Jane. Holm based her story on the diaries of James G. Swan, an early settler in the Washington Territory who observed the Chinook and recorded their way of life. Predictably, "Boston Jane" sheds her useless refinements and adapts to the realities of the frontier with the help of the Chinook and Mr. Swan, having a great many scrapes and trials along the way, but she is an endearing heroine, naively confiding points of etiquette to those around her and eventually having the sense to let her repressive fianc go in favor of Jehu, the scarred sailor who has loved her since the voyage out. Readers who enjoy adventures in the Charlotte Doyle tradition will forgive the uneven telling and enter into Boston Jane's predicament. Copyright 2001 Horn Book Magazine

Kirkus Reviews

It's etiquette versus exigency in 19th-century Washington Territory. Jane Peck wasn't always a lady; until the age of 11, she was the very picture of a hoyden, terrorizing the neighborhood with rotten apples and manure pats. But prodded by the censure of the ladylike Sally Biddle, and with the encouragement of her physician father's apprentice, William of the dazzling smile, she enrolls in Miss Hepplewhite's Young Ladies Academy. In the space of four years, she goes from being an independent and opinionated, if messy, girl to a very proper young lady, much to the dismay of her independent and opinionated Papa. But when she sails from Philadelphia to Shoalwater Bay to join William, she finds that he has gone, and she must make a place for herself among rough mountain men and the Chinook Indians, none of whom give a hoot for the accomplishments of a young lady. Holm (Our Only May Amelia, 1999) gives readers an original, likable narrator in Jane and a good-humored, rip-roaring romantic adventure, with colorful secondary characters to spare. These include Mr. James Swan, who left his family in Boston to pursue anthropological study (an actual historical figure), and the blue-eyed Jehu, the sailor who encourages Jane to revise her notion of proper young ladyhood. A couple of subplots are left hanging or seem out of place: the obvious decline in Jane's father's health goes unresolved, and the introduction of the ghost of Jane's traveling companion does little to further the plot. An unfortunately young-looking cover illustration will limit the usefulness of this otherwise highly enjoyable historical romp. (author's note) (Fiction. 10-14) Copyright Kirkus 2001 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved

Kirkus Reviews

In the third installment of her trilogy about Boston Jane, Holm continues the drama of white settlers in the Washington Territory, some of whom embrace the Chinook way of life and many of whom disdain their so-called "savage" ways. This familiar conflict rears its ugly head when a child of a Chinook Indian mother and a white father who has died, is taken away from the mother to be raised by a white family. Additional aspects of settlement life include the coming of a dry-goods store, first elections, and fraudulent land schemes. Jane, who had uprooted herself from Philadelphia and found friendship and promise in this rough new community, now faces a new threat, not the physical danger of murderers and the frontier, but the supercilious and disdainful ways of Sally Biddle, her old Philadelphia nemesis. She is less successful in overcoming the proper Ms. Biddle and, in fact, needs the familiar plot device of a letter left lying about to achieve victory. That victory is a proposal of marriage from the handsome Jehu. While this is not as compelling as the previous two titles, Jane's fans will delight in the turn of events and celebrate with her. (Fiction. 10-14) Copyright Kirkus 2004 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly Reviews

A 16-year-old blossoming society lady must abandon etiquette in order to survive on the frontier. "The series of challenges that transform Jane into an outspoken, self-reliant young woman forms a tale that readers will long remember," said PW. Ages 10-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly Reviews

Holm (Our Only May Amelia) returns to the frontier (by way of Philadelphia) in this fast-paced second novel about a blossoming society lady who must surrender etiquette in order to survive. The enormously likable and irrepressible 16-year-old narrator Jane recounts her childhood crush on her father's apprentice William, which caused her, at age 11, to trade her tomboyish spitting and cherry pie-eating for proper deportment and embroidery lessons at Miss Hepplewhite's Young Ladies Academy. As Jane makes her way to the Oregon territory to marry William, Holm humorously juxtaposes Miss Hepplewhite's lessons with the reality of life at sea and on the frontier in 1854. Such advice as travelers must "dress plainly and pack lightly" does not seem to apply: Jane reflects, "She had been rather remiss in mentioning any hints on killing fleas, avoiding rats, bathing with seawater, or being seasick." The plot thickens when she meets Jehu, an officer on the ship and discovers that William has departed for a project with the governor. Jane (named Boston Jane by the local Chinook Indians) must share a cabin with unkempt, tobacco-chewing men and make herself useful by cooking, washing and mending rather than supervising servants or pouring tea. The developing love triangle (with Jehu and William) takes a back seat to Holm's credible portrait of Jane's budding friendships with the Chinook and pioneers, and the series of challenges that transform her into the outspoken, self-reliant young woman readers will long remember. Ages 10-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly Reviews

Boston Jane: The Claim by Jennifer L. Holm, continues Jane's ongoing frontier adventures in the Pacific Northwest. Her world turns tumultuous when Sally Biddle, her debutante nemesis, arrives at Shoalwater Bay intent on destroying Jane's life. Moreover, Jane must contend with her ex-fiance's attempts to turn the settlers against the native Chinooks. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal Reviews

Gr 6-10-Jane's doctor father has allowed his motherless daughter the freedom to do what she wants without restraints of propriety and etiquette. She enjoys a life unusual for a well-bred girl of Philadelphia in the 1840s. However, when she is 11, her conversations with a young medical student result in her decision to enroll in an academy for young ladies and learn to behave in a proper manner. William leaves Philadelphia for the Washington Territory and when Jane turns 15, he asks her to join him there as his wife. Jane and Mary, one of the servant girls, board the Lady Luck for the treacherous and unpleasant trip to the far northwest. Mary dies en route and the indomitable Jane must face the unknown alone. Things get worse when she arrives. William is off negotiating Indian treaties, there are no white women in the settlement, and she must share lodgings with men who have little knowledge of cleanliness and even less about how to treat a "lady." In the spirit of Avi's The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (Orchard, 1990), the strong, believableprotagonist proves her mettle in the way she handles the adversities she meets. The author's portrayal of pioneer/Chinook relationships is sympathetic as the young woman finds true friendship with them. The only jarring note is the use of Mary's ghost to let Jane know that she is making a mistake in upholding her loyalty to shallow, stuffy William. It is an unnecessary device that adds little to an exceptionally good book. As a storyteller, Holm is superb.-Janet Hilbun, formerly at Sam Houston Middle School, Garland, TX Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal Reviews

Gr 6 Up-Fans of this series, set in Shoalwater Bay in Washington Territory in the 1850s, will find Jane, now 17, to be just as strong and admirable a character as ever. In this third installment, the frontier settlement has grown into a town and Jane works as a concierge in the hotel. Her old rival, Sally Biddle, disembarks ship and immediately takes every opportunity to embarrass and alienate Jane just as she had done back in Philadelphia. William Baldt, the man who asked Jane to marry him in the first book, is back and threatens to take her land. She surprises some community members when she speaks up for a wrongly accused Chinook who is charged with stealing whiskey, and she bravely rescues a child of Chinook and white heritage who is unfairly placed with an abusive foster parent. A touch of romance between Jane and Jehu, the sailor she met on her journey west, helps move the story to a satisfying conclusion. This glimpse into Northwestern pioneer life is based on primary and secondary sources, including Holm's own family history. Recommend this title to readers who enjoyed L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables and Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House on the Prairie" series (HarperCollins).-Jean Gaffney, Dayton and Montgomery County Public Library, Miamisburg, OH Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.