MY PRAIRIE YEAR: Based on the Diary of Elenore Plaisted

by Brett Harvey ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 1986

The author's grandmother (later a successful children's book illustrator) describes her 10th year, when her Maine family became homesteaders in the Dakota Territory. The simple narrative will be familiar in style to anyone of middle age lucky enough to have heard such reminiscences as children. Elenore recalls her first impression of ""endless tall grass that billowed in the wind. . .,"" details a week's activities from the traditional Monday wash to Saturday baking and the welcome Sunday respite, and then follows the year's cycle, punctuated with the dramas of summer tornado and fall prairie fire. Quietly yet with the eloquence of truth, the narrative gives a nicely rounded, brief evocation of pioneer life, a good supplement to the more fully realized stories of Wilder and MacLachlan. Ray's impressionistic drawings sweep across the broad double spreads, capturing the warmth and dependability of the characters, the coziness of the interiors, the broad expanse of the landscape.

Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Holiday House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1986

Categories: CHILDREN'S