I read this decades ago and I remembered I liked it, and found this copy in a box of discards and decided to read it again. I was not disappointed. I like Patricia Beatty's works. ( )

Patricia Beatty wrote two types of historical fiction for children--American historical, frequently centered on a female character, and English, which she wrote with her husband. How many miles to Sundown, set in the early 1880's, is the story of Beulah Land Quiney, who travels with her brother and another young man from her home in Texas to Sundown in California. She is more or less shanghaied into it when her brother steals her horse and she follows him on his horse with her pet longhorn steer in tow. When it comes to strong female characters, Beulah breaks the mold: she is more often than not mistaken for a boy and her brother is afraid of her. The trio has adventures with outlaws, Native Americans and circus performers and Beatty creates a realistic picture of the West at that time.

This book is something of a sequel to [Long way to Whiskey Creek] by the same author and has some of the same characters. ( )