To alleviate her boredom, Amanda figures out how to bake pies, and by a combination of circumstance and cleverness she starts a successful bakery that kickstarts the settlement into becoming a boomtown.

[1] While reading a book about the history of California, Levitin noticed a description of a girl who, during the Gold Rush, baked $11,000 worth of pies.

[6] For example, she suggests to a peddler who sells her more pie pans that he open a trading post in town, and she persuades several others to start local businesses such as a livery yard and laundry.

[6] At the end of the book, there is a historical note stating that many people who found success during the Gold Rush did so as entrepreneurs rather than as miners.

[10][11] Levitin wrote and Smith illustrated a sequel also starring Amanda titled Taking Charge, which Orchard Books published in 1999.

[7] In the School Library Journal, Steven Engelfried praised the narratorial voice for Amanda, stating the character added "just the right touch of humor to an authentic, though exaggerated look at the development of the West".

"[3] Reviewer Margaret A. Bush, writing for Horn Book Magazine, concluded that Levitin's "intent to demonstrate that far more settlers made fortunes by providing goods and services than by striking gold is adroitly accomplished in this entertaining lesson in history and human nature.

Publishers Weekly stated that her "rollicking, dusty-toned watercolors capture the energy of a developing town and convey the can-do spirit of adventurous settlers.

"[8] Writing for the New York Times, Anne Scott MacLeod called Smith's artwork "as spirited as Amanda ... loose, energetic, cheerful and full of accurate detail.

"[5] Bush considered Smith's illustration work "comic and informative, conveying the busy lives of the homely, hard-working people".