Journey to Opportunity, Idaho

I have discovered I love the "Dear America" series. It's a fiction series where a girl writes a diary about the events of that time period. I just finished reading West to a Land of Plenty: The Diary of Teresa Angelino Viscardi, New York to Idaho Territory, 1883 I enjoyed this book, but I'm not sure I'd want children to read it. One of the two authors of the diary, a young girl, dies on the way to Idaho. I think children's books should be a little more upbeat. I know death is a part of life, but in a children's book where one of the main characters die, who is likely younger than the reader? I recently read Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: The Diary of Bess Brennan--The Perkins School for the Blind, 1932 and prefered it much more. Although the main character goes blind in this story, there isn't the hardships that are recounded in the "West to a Land of Plenty" book. Still, it was a good book, and I have to admire the pioneers who went west.