Children's Literature of the Great Plains
Picture Books, Readers, Intermediate and Upper Fiction, and Young Adult


     Information for this page was collected primarily by Carla Rosenquist Buhler the University of Nebraska's children's librarian.  I would like to thank her for her generous contribution to Nebraska educators and students. Though I list literature resources throughout the site, this bibliography was written with teachers in mind.  Each citation contains a brief summary of the books listed and then gives a suggested reading level.  Many of the books that are listed here also have suggested readings that fit the theme of the fiction book, ranging from other books in a series to non-fiction that can be read in conjunction with the listed books.
     As you come across new, or old, books that we have not listed here please feel free to send us the titles through our suggestion box.

PICTURE BOOKS

Dandelions
Author:     Bunting, Eve
Publisher:  Harcourt Brace & Co., New York, 1995
Reading/Interest Level:   Preschool-3rd grade
Setting:   Nebraska Territory, approx. 1860's-70's
Subjects:  Pioneers, homesteading, family life, loneliness, Nebraska
     Zoe and her family move by covered wagon from Illinois to Nebraska territory where her father feels they can have a better life.  Zoe worries about her mother, who seems sad and homesick in the empty land.  During a trip with her father to town, they collect a few Dandelions.  Zoe wants to plant them on the roof of their soddy to make it look cheerier and more visible from a distance.  However, she is worried that the Dandelions will wilt and die in the heat before she has a chance to plant them.  The hardy plants become a symbol of the family's struggle to flourish in their new home.  A wonderful illustration on the last page shows the entire roof covered with bright yellow blossoms.
    This detailed and fairly lengthy story in picture book format is enriched with warm color illustrations by Greg Shed.  Bunting captures the layers of emotional uncertainty family members feel moving to a bare and unsettled territory, as well as the small incidents that help build their confidence.  Fear of unfamiliar, treeless land and sadness in leaving friends and family are recurring themes in pioneer diaries and Bunting does a very good job of  expressing those emotions in this simple and touching story.
Related children's fiction:
          Primary: Going West, My Prairie Year, Grandma Essie's Covered Wagon
           Intermediate: Prairie Songs, Addie Across the Prairie, Grasshopper Summer.


Train to Somewhere
Author:   Bunting, Eve
Publisher:   Clarion Books, New York, 1996 
Reading/Interest Level:  K-3rd grades (PictureBook)
Setting:   Great Plains, 1878
Subjects:   Orphans, orphan train, adoption practices, foster care
      Based on true accounts of children taken west on Orphan Trains, this is the story of Marianne who is among fourteen orphans taken by train from New York City in hopes of being adopted by families in the Great Plains in 1878.  Marianne still hopes her mother, who left her at an orphanage when she headed west a number of years before, will be at one of the stops to meet her.  But by the last stop, Marianne is the only orphan left, and is ready to be taken by a kindly older couple.  This topic has caught the interest of both writers and researchers recently.  There are a number of children's novels on orphans, as well as good research on the history of the orphan trains both at the juvenile and adult level.
Related children's books:
Intermediate and upper: An Orphan for Nebraska, That's One Long Journey Home.
Non-Fiction:  Orphan Train Rider: One Boy's True Story, by Andrea Warren, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1996.  This children's book which recounts the story of one boy and his brothers who were among the 200,000 orphans placed in the Midwest between 1854 and 1929.
The Orphan Trains.- Placing Out in America, by Marilyn Irvin Holt, University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 1992.  This adult book gives factual background on the orphan trains. Tears on Paper.- the History and Life Stories of the Orphan Train Riders, compiled by Patricia J. Young
and Frances E. Marks, Rathdrum, ID, Distributed by Orphan Train Books, 1990.  Another adult book which is a biography of orphans in Nebraska.
We are a Part of History.- the Story of the Orphan Trains  by Michael Patrick, Evelyn Sheets and Evelyn Trickel, Lightening Tree, Santa Fe, 1990.  This is an adult book about orphans adopted in Missouri.

My Prairie Year: Based on the Diary of Elenore Plaisted
Author:   Harvey, Brett
Publisher:  Holiday House, New York, 1986
Reading/Interest Level:   K-3rd grades
Setting:  Dakota Territory, 1889
Subjects: Homesteading, family life, farming, tornados, prairie fires, Dakota
      The family travels from Maine to Dakota to become homesteaders.  The story details the everyday chores and farm life of a homesteading family as well as the perils of a tornado, a blizzard and fighting a prairie fire.  This book tells which chores are performed each day of the week.  Monday was wash day, Tuesday was ironing and mending day, etc.  Dividing chores by the day of the week was a common practice in pioneer households.  This book includes the chores done by the children in the family and gives a good sense of the kinds of work expected of children. 
       It also describes seasonal jobs such as threshing the wheat in the autumn and follows the family through one entire year.  This book is based on a diary written by the author's grandmother.  It is filled with details and includes black and white drawings by Deborah Kogan Ray.
Related children's books:
Intermediate or Upper: Tornado! Poems by Arnold Adoff, Delacorte Press, New York, 1977. This book, which can be read as one long poem, or a number of shorter sections, depicts a tornado heading toward a small Ohio town.  Describes the tornado, family preparations, the impact and aftermath.  Vivid black and white illustrations.

Snowed In
Author:   Lucas, Barbara M.
Publisher:   Bradbury Pr., New York, 1993
Reading/Interest Level:   Preschool-2nd grades
Setting:   Wyoming, 1915
Subjects:  family life, fanning, school, winter, Wyoming
     A family on the Wyoming frontier gets ready for winter, when the roads will be impassable and they must survive on their own.  Their father helps them get books from school, supplies from the general store and books from the library to keep them busy during the winter. During the time they are snowed in, the family do chores, homework and read stories.  Detailed
illustrations add a good sense of what a frontier school, store and library looked like.

Dakota Dugout
Author:   Turner, Ann
Publisher:   Macmillan Publishing Co., New York, 1989
Reading/Interest Level:   Preschool-2nd grade
Setting:   Dakota Territory
Subjects:   Homesteading, house construction, family life, Dakota
      A memoir of a young bride's first few happy years living in a dugout.  Simple but vivid descriptions give a sense of the house and land, including some descriptions of building and living in a dugout.  Major events happening in each season are discussed, including planting in spring and a blizzard in winter.  Black and white line drawings add detail.

Going West
Author:   Van Leeuwen, Jean
Publisher:   Dial Books, New York, 1992
Reading/Interest Level:   Preschool-3rd grade
Setting:   Great Plains, approx. 1860's-70's.
Subjects:   Pioneers, homesteading, family life, loneliness, Christmas, encounters between Whites and Indians
      Seven year old Hannah and her family pack up their wagon and head West.  After they cross a wide muddy river, they come to a flat, treeless land and start to build their new home.  This story describes a number of incidents during their first year in their new home, including planting crops, meeting new neighbors, encountering Indians and struggling through winter.  By the end of the year, they are feeling settled and their new house feels like home. Van Leeuwen is intentionally vague about where the family is from or where they settle on the plains.  Although there are some personal family details, such as leaving the mother's beloved piano behind, it seems that it could be incidents in the life of any pioneer family. Language is sparse and descriptive and the muted color illustrations by Thomas Allen are very
evocative.
Related children's fiction:
Primary: Dandelions, My Prairie Year, Grandma Essie's Covered Wagon Intermediate and Upper: Prairie Songs, Addie Across the Prairie, Grasshopper Summer.
Non-Fiction: ...If You Traveled West in a Covered Wagon by Ellen Levine, Scholastic Inc., New York, 1986.  This intermediate to upper level children's book describes many aspects of traveling in a covered wagon including clothing and food, doing chores, fording rivers, seeing wild  nimals,
and dangers and difficulties.
A Pioneer Woman's Memoir by Judith E. Greenberg and Helen Carey McKeever, Franklin Watts, New York, 1995.  This upper level children's book gives a factual account of a wagon train passage from Missouri to Oregon in 1864.  It is based on the journal of Arabella Clemens Fulton. 
It gives a host of details of pioneer travel as well as excerpts from the diary.
West By Covered Wagon: Retracing the Pioneer Trails by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, Walker & Co., New York, 1994.  This intermediate level book with color photographs, documents a modem wagon train trip taken by the Westmont Wagoners.  This group of about 200 people and 35
wagons, traces the Oregon Trail journey of the early pioneers.  The book gives information about pioneer travel across the Oregon trail.

Grandma Essie's Covered Wagon
Author:   Williams, David
Publisher:   Alfred a. Knopf, New York, 1993
Reading/Interest Level:   Preschool-4th grades
Setting:   Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, 1910-20 approx.
Subjects:   Pioneers, family life, farming, death, friendship, tornados, drought, hired-girls
      Based on the remembrances of his grandmother, Williams tells the story of her family's move from Missouri first to Kansas and then Oklahoma and finally back to Missouri in search of a better life.  The simple story recalls the family's journey to Kansas by covered wagon, Essie's school  experiences, the birth of a niece, and the drought that forced them to move on.   In Oklahoma, they stayed for a while with their grandparents.  Later, her father got a job in the oil fields, Essie worked waiting tables and her sister died of exposure.  After a year there, they saved enough money to move back to Missouri where they remained.  Many families who headed west were not able to make it and ended up returning home.   This is one of the few children's books to offer a glimpse at that side of the story.  The
family lives in poverty from beginning to end, despite the father's attempts to improve their situation.  Told from a child's perspective, their plight is somewhat softened, and many of their experiences seem like adventures.  Color illustrations by Wiktor Sadowski add detail and charm to the story.  Included also photograph of the family.
Related children's fiction:
Primary: Dandelions, My Prairie Year, Going West
Intermediate and Upper: Prairie Songs, Addie Across the Prairie, Grasshopper Summer.

READERS

Wagon  Wheels
Author:   Brenner, Barbara
Publisher:   Harper & Row, New York, 1978
Reading Level:   lst-2nd grades (an I Can Read History Book) Interest level may be higher.
Setting:   Nicodemus, Kansas, 1878
Subjects:   African-Americans, homesteading, family life, prairie fires, encounters between Whites and Indians, Osage Indians, Kansas
         Based on a true story, this is a four-chapter reader about an
African-American family's homesteading experience in Kansas.  During the trip from Kentucky, the mother died, leaving a father and three boys ranging in age from three to eleven.  They build a dugout for the winter and are given food by the Osage Indians.  In Spring, the father moves on, leaving his sons behind.  The boys hunt, fish, escape a prairie fire, and finally travel twenty-two days to join their father near Solomon City.  Although this book does not mention it, Nicodemus was the first all-black town settled on the Great Plains.  The original settlers were almost entirely freed slaves.   The town still survives and has become a National Monument.
Related Nonfiction:
Going Home to Nicodemus.- The Story of an African American Frontier Town and the Pioneers Who Settled It, by Daniel Chu and Bill Shaw, Julian Messner Publisher, New Jersey, 1994.  This non-fiction (intermediate-upper) children's book tells the story of Revered Hickman's
congregation of freed slaves from Kentucky who head west to Nicodemus in 1877 in search of free land and a new life.  The book tells the story of the early settlers, the growth of the town and its small group of current residents.  It contains black and white photographs.
Black Frontiers: A History of African American Heros in the Old West, by Lillian Schlissel, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, New York, 1995.  This intermediate level children's book has three chapters which discuss blacks leaving the South after the Civil War and homesteading in the Great Plains.  The town of Nicodemus is mentioned.  There is also
information on black soldiers and black cowboys.


Little Yellow Fur
Author:  Hayes, Wilma Pitchford
Publisher:   Coward, McCann & Goeghegan, Inc., New York, 1973
Reading/Interest Level:  2nd-4th grades (A Break of Day Book)
Setting:  South Dakota, 1913
Subjects:   Homesteading, encounters between Whites and Indians, Sioux Indians, family life, South Dakota
      When Susanna's family homesteads near Rosebud Indian Reservation, Susanna's mother is lonely and worried.  But little Susanna is curious about her Sioux neighbors.  Soon she visits the reservation, makes friends with many Sioux and even receives a beaded doeskin dress and moccasins from the women in Red Cloud's village.  Based on the author's early life, this book portrays positive relations between settlers and the Sioux Indians.  Susanna is given the name Little Yellow Fur because of her blond hair.
Related children's books:
Readers: Yellow Fur and Little Hawk

Yellow Fur and Little Hawk
Author:   Hayes, Wilma Pitchford
Publisher:   Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc., New York, 1980
Reading/Interest Level:   2nd-4th grades (A Break of Day Book)
Setting:   South Dakota, 1915
Subjects:   Sioux Indians, family life, drought, Dakota reservation, South Dakota
      This is a sequel to Little Yellow Fur.  Susanna has now been living near the reservation for two years.  Her father is commissioned by the reservation agent to build houses for the Indians and is puzzled that they don't want to move into them.  Her mother thinks it is because they are stubborn, but Susanna finds out that it is because the Sioux live in a circle, like the sun, the moon and the nests of birds, not in square boxes.  However, when a bad hailstorm hits, White Bull, a holy man, moves his round tepee into a square house, finding a way to compromise with the rigid expectations of the reservation.  This simple story shows real friendship between the Sioux and some settlers, as well as the inflexible demands the U.S. Government made on Indians living on reservations.

Dust for Dinner
Author:   Turner, Ann
Publisher:   Harper Collins, 1995
Reading/Interest Level:   1st-2nd grades (an I Can Read Book)
Setting:   Oklahoma, 1930's
Subjects: Family life, farming, dust storms, drought, Great Depression, Oklahoma
      Jake and Maggie live happily on a farm with their Mama and Papa until two years without rain force them to sell their farm, auction their possessions and move West along with hundreds of other displaced farmers in search of work.  They camp by the side of the road and the parents work for food until the father finally gets a job in California.  This five-chapter reader with color illustrations offers a good introduction to the hardships of life in the Dust Bowl of the 1930's at an easy reading level.
Related children's books: Red-Dirt Jessie is an intermediate book which is also placed in the Oklahoma Dust Bowl.
Non-Fiction: Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp by Jerry Stanley, Crown Publishers, New York, 1992.  This upper level children's book gives information about the conditions in the Midwest that forced families to travel to California in search of better lives.  Many of these families went to the San Joaquin Valley hoping to work picking crops.  Unfortunately, there was little work, and many families lived in squalid "Okieville" camps.  This book tells of their poverty and desperation, but also of a school set up for the children.

INTERMEDIATE AND UPPER FICTION

The Wizard of Oz
Author:   Baum, L. Frank
Publisher:   Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 1944
Reading/Interest Level:   3rd-6th grades
Setting:   Kansas and Oz, late 1800's
Subjects:   Family life, farming, orphans, tornados, fantasy, Kansas
      During a cyclone (tornado), Dorothy is swept away from her aunt and uncle's farm in Kansas to the land of Oz.  Here she encounters a number of strange creatures, makes friends and has exciting adventures as she struggles to return home.  In this fantastic adventure, Baum contrasts the bleak greyness of Kansas farm life with the colorful imagination of a child.  He also establishes the underlying importance of "home," to an orphan.  This book provides an interesting contrast to other, more realistic books about orphans and plains life.
Related children's books:
Intermediate and Upper: That's One Ornery Orphan, An Orphan for Nebraska, The Journey Home, Night of the Twisters, and the rest of the
Baum OZ series of books.


That's One Ornery Orphan
Author:   Beatty, Patricia
Publisher:   William Morrow and Co., New York, 1980
Reading/Interest Level:  3rd-6th Grades
Setting:  Blanco County, Texas, 1889
Subjects:  orphans, orphanages, adoption practices, foster care, hired girls, preachers, doctors, theater, Texas.
      When her grandfather and only living relative dies, thirteen year old Hattie Baker is taken to the Blanco County orphan asylum.  C.T. Hopkins, who runs the orphanage makes several unsuccessful and comical attempts to place the outspoken Hallie, before she is finally adopted by a kindly farming family who take her in as their daughter.  Amusingly written, with a high-spirited main character, this book none the less describes the casual adoption practices of the time and the possible perils for adoptive children
who were often taken as unpaid workers rather than family members, and sometimes badly treated.
Related children's books:
Intermediate and Upper: An Orphan for Nebraska, Train to Somewhere, A Journey Home
Non-Fiction: Orphan Train Rider.- One Boy's True Story, by Andrea Warren, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1996.  This children's book which recounts the story of one boy and his brothers who were among the 200,000 orphans placed in the Midwest between 1854 and 1929.
The Orphan Trains.- Placing Out in America, by Marilyn Irvin Holt, University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 1992.  This adult book gives factual background on the orphan trains.
Tears on Paper: the History and Life Stories of the Orphan Train Riders, compiled by Patricia J. Young and Frances E. Marks, Rathdrum, ID, Distributed by Orphan Train Books, 1990.  Another adult book which is a biography of orphans in Nebraska.
We are a Part of History.- the Story of the Orphan Trains by Michael Patrick, Evelyn Sheets and Evelyn Trickel, Lightening Tree, Santa Fe, 1990.  This is an adult book about orphans adopted in Missouri.

My Daniel
Author:  Conrad, Pam
Publisher:  Harper & Row, New York, 1989
Reading/Interest Level:  3rd-6th grades
Setting:  Nebraska, 1880's and present
Subjects: Family life, farming, death, dinosaurs, Nebraska
   As Julia Summerwaite visits the Natural History Museum with her two
grandchildren, she recounts the story of her childhood in rural Nebraska.  The story focuses on her brother Daniel, who loved the old bones, rocks and even sea shells he found as he helped farm their family's property.  When a team of passing dinosaur hunters told him there might be dinosaur
bones nearby, Daniel began searching their property in ernest.  His discovery of some huge bones led to his tragic death, and Julia discloses the events surrounding his death as she and her grandchildren view the brontosaurus skeleton he found.  This is a story of a girl's love for her brother, and the hardships of farming in Nebraska.   It also describes the excitement of a great find and the lawlessness of some fortune seekers in the old west.

Prairie Songs
Author:   Conrad, Pam
Publisher:   Harper Trophy, 1985
Reading/Interest Level:   4th-6th grades
Setting:   Nebraska, (1870's ?)
Subjects:   Homesteading, family life, death, doctors, encounters between Whites and Indians, Nebraska
     Louisa lives with her brother Lester and parents in a Nebraska soddy.  She loves her prairie home and finds it difficult to understand the fears of her new neighbor, Mrs. Berryman.  However, Louisa is also intrigued with her neighbor's beautiful clothes, lovely pale skin and the books she has brought with her from the East.  Dr. and Mrs. Berryman have come to Nebraska where his services as doctor are greatly needed.  Louisa and her mother try to help Mrs. Berryman feel welcome in her new home, but the challenges of pioneering life proves to much for her. This book does a good job of contrasting the hardships and simple pleasures of plains living.  Conrad provides realistic descriptions of soddy living, the emptiness of the plains, and the difficulty many people had adjusting.

Dust of the Earth
Author:   Cleaver, Vera and Bill
Publisher:   J. P. Lippincott, New York, 1975
Reading/Interest Level:  4th-7th
Setting:   South Dakota, (1930's?)
Subjects: Family Life, sheep raising, childbirth, blizzards, South Dakota
    Fourteen year-old Fern Drawn thinks of her family as misfits, loners, and
losers.  But when they inherit a farm in the Black Hills of western South Dakota from Fern's grandfather, they finally have a chance to pull together, make something of their lives and even have a place to call their own.  They get to know as respect each other, as they learn to raise sheep and restore the dilapidated old farm property.  Aspects of sheep raising are explained in this book.  Some local history and legends are included as well as descriptions of the Black Hills.  This book does not specify period and I found it somewhat difficult to determine when the author intended it to be set.  It could be more recent than I have indicated.

Dakota Sons
Author:   Distad, Audree
Publisher:   Harper & Row, New York, 1972
Reading/Interest Level:   3rd-6th grades 
Setting: Dakota, 1970's
Subjects:  Friendships, prejudice, encounters between whites and American Indians, Dakota Indians, Native Americans, Dakota
     Tad lives in a small town where is father keeps a general store.  His best friend has moved away and Tad looks forward to a long and boring summer.  However, he soon meets a Dakota boy his age staying at the Indian school nearby.  As he and Ronnie White Cloud become friends, Tad begins to more clearly see the prejudices of many of the people around him, and to get past his own.  He is also able to see how the unkind words and acts of others hurt and separate him from his new friend.
Related children's fiction:
Intermediate and Upper: High Elk's Treasure

The Journey Home
Author:  Holland, Isabelle
Publisher:  Scholastic, New York, 1990
Reading/Interest Level:  4th-6th grades
Setting:  New York and Kansas, late 1800's
Subjects:  Death, orphans, orphan train, adoption, prejudice, sisters, school, Kansas
     Maggie's parents brought her and her seven year old sister, Annie, from Ireland to New York in search of a better life.  But after their father's death, their mother falls sick with consumption.  It is her dying wish that her daughters go out west together.  They are taken by Orphan Train and finally adopted together to a Kansas family.  The family only wanted one girl to
help the frail Mrs. Russell take care of her aged mother and other chores, but reluctantly agrees to take them both.  The community is Protestant and suspicious of the girls' Catholic beliefs.  At school, they are teased for being poor orphans.  This is the story of their adjustment to their new surroundings and new life.

Jim-Dandy
Author:  Irwin, Hadley
Publisher:  Margaret K. McElderry Books
Reading/Interest Level:  4th-6th grades
Setting:  Kansas, 1870's
Subjects: canning, horses, army, encounters between Whites and Indians, Indian Wars, Cheyenne, Kansas
      After his mother's death, Caleb lives a lonely life with his step-father, Webb Cotter.  Webb is a deeply religious Quaker who has little interest in Caleb, and rarely even talks to him. Further, they are desperately poor.  However, Caleb's life seems to turn around when their horse gives birth to a foal, which Caleb claims as his own and calls Jim-Dandy.  He trains it in secret.  But one day when Webb sells the horse to Custer's army for much needed money, Caleb runs away to join the army and remain with his horse.  In the army, he helps care for the horses, including Dandy, who becomes one of Custer's own.  Caleb and Dandy see fierce fighting
between the army and the Cheyenne.  But Dandy seems to thrive on the battle while Caleb despises it.  He comes around to Webb Cotter's Quaker way of thinking, and eventually leaves the army, realizing that Dandy no longer belongs to him.  This story is based on a historical event.  General Custer really did have a horse named Dandy that he bought from a poor Kansas farmer.  It describes Custer as hotheaded and eccentric and also alludes to the Army's brutal treatment of the Indians.

Coast to Coast with Alice
Author:  Hyatt, Patricia Rusch
Publisher:  Carolrhoda Books, 1995
Reading/Interest Level:  4th-6th
Setting: New York City to San Francisco, 1909
Subjects: Automobiles, cross-country journeys, diaries, sex roles
     Based on an actual event, this is the story of sixteen year old Hermine Jahns who rode across country with Alice Ramsey in 1909 when automobiles were new, maps were few and only two men had made the trip before them.  Although the journey seemed to be mostly a publicity stunt and the young women were chaperoned, this book depicts their enthusiasm and adventurous spirit.  It also gives details about automotive repairs, driving cross country in wagon ruts and other perils of early motoring.
 Their trip took them through Iowa, Nebraska (where they were delayed because of a murder investigation outside of Ogallala) and Wyoming, closely following the overland trails used by earlier pioneers.  It is an interesting contrast to earlier cross-country travel and an indication of how quickly transportation was changing.  The book is written in diary form and
includes a number of black and white photographs of the trip.
Related children's books:
A Pioneer Woman's Memoir, by Judith E. Greenberg and Helen Carey McKeever, Franklin Watts, New York, 1995.  This is a factual account of a wagon train passage from Missouri to Oregon in 1864.  Based on the journal of Arabella Clemens Fulton, it gives a host of details of pioneer travel across country following much the same route as Hermine and Alice.  It includes diary excerpts. Thrashin' Time by David Weitzamn depicts changes in farming brought on by steam engines. Both books show how the advent of machinery was changing life in this country. 

Addie Across the Prairie
Author:  Lawler, Laurie
Publisher:  Albert Whitman and Co., Illinois, 1986
Reading/Interest Level:  3rd-6th grades
Setting:   Hutchinson County, Dakota Territory, 1883
Subjects: Homesteading, pioneers, family life, prairie fires, encounters between Whites and Indians, Dakota
     Nine year old Addie Mills and her family leave their friends and family in Sabula, Iowa to homestead in Dakota Territory.  The chance to begin again in Dakota also brings loneliness, a more rugged way of life, hard work and new dangers.  But the family makes new friends and begins to settle in.  Addie and her family are likeable characters who face hardships bravely.
Detailed descriptions of packing a wagon, traveling for weeks across country, the landscape and building a "soddy" are included.
Related children's fiction:
Intermediate and Upper: Addie's Dakota Winter, Addie's Long Summer, Little House on the Prairie
Non-Fiction:  If You Traveled West in a Covered Wagon by Ellen Levine, Scholastic Inc., New York, 1986.  This intermediate to upper level children's book describes many aspects of traveling in a covered wagon including clothing and food, doing chores, fording rivers, seeing wild animals, and dangers and difficulties.
A Pioneer Woman's Memoir by Judith E. Greenberg and Helen Carey McKeever, Franklin Watts, New York, 1995.  This upper level children's book gives a factual account of a wagon train passage from Missouri to Oregon in 1864.  It is based on the journal of Arabella Clemens Fulton. 
It gives a host of details of pioneer travel as well as excerpts from the diary.
West By Covered Wagon: Retracing the Pioneer Trails by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, Walker & Co., New York, 1994.  This intermediate level book with color photographs, documents a modem wagon train trip taken by the Westmont Wagoners.  This group of about 200 people and 35
wagons, traces the Oregon Trail journey of the early pioneers.  The book gives information about pioneer travel across the Oregon trail.

Addie's Dakota Winter
Author:  Lawler, Laurie
Publisher:  Albert Whitman & Co., Illinois, 1989
Reading/Interest Level:   4th-6th grades
Setting:  Hutchinson County, Dakota Territory, 1885
Subjects:    Homesteading, rural schools, blizzards, family life, friendships, Christmas, Norwegian immigrants, Russian immigrants, Dakota territory
Now eleven, Addie and her brother George finally start school in their new home in Dakota Territory.  Addie is anxious to make new friend, but disappointed when the only girl her age at school is Tilla Bergstrom, a Norwegian immigrant, who only speaks little English.  However, as Tilla and Addie learn more about each other, their uncertain friendship grows. 
Addie is also forced to take refuge alone in a barn during a blizzard. This book also explores some of the prejudices American settlers held toward immigrants.
Related children's fiction:
Intermediate and Upper: Prairie School, The Long Winter

Addie's Long Summer
Author:  Lawler, Laurie
Publisher:  Albert Whitman & Co., Illinois, 1992
Reading/Interest Level:  4th-6th grades
Setting:  Dakota Territory, 1886
Subjects:  Homesteading, family life, cousins, farming, friendships, country vs. town, Dakota territory
     In this third book in the series, Addie and her family look forward to a visit from her cousins who live in their old home in Sabula, Iowa.  But, the wealthier "town" girls are surprised by the primitive way Addie's family lives.  Addie is uncertain about going away from home to continue her education, and her family is worried that the drought will ruin their crops.

Prairie School
Author:  Lenski, Lois
Publisher:  J.B. Lippincott Company, New York, 1951
Reading/Interest Level:  2nd-4th grades
Setting: Corson County, South Dakota, 1949
Subjects: Blizzards, rural schools, family life, farming, German immigrants, Christmas, South Dakota
      Delores and Darrell Wagner attend a small rural one room school during a particularly harsh winter.  Several times, blizzards come up suddenly and students must stay at the school for several days.  Mr. Wagner's preoccupation with farming causes trouble when he fails to
haul a load of coal to the school and again when he chooses to look for lost cattle rather than take Delores home during a blizzard.  On the second occasion, Delores develops appendicitis and her teacher, Miss Martin, struggles to get the girl to the hospital.  Based on actual accounts of blizzards in the Dakotas between 1948 and 1950, this book makes an interesting contrast to stories of blizzards set in the late 1800's.  It contains
detailed descriptions of rural school and farm life, in the middle of this century, which still lacked many modern conveniences.  There is some discussion of the famiily's German ancestry and of the Dakota Reservation nearby.
Related children's books: Addie's Dakota Winter, The Long Winter.

Trail Fever: The Life of a Texas Cowboy
Author:  Lightfoot, D.J.
Publisher: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, New York, 1992
Reading/Interest Level: 3rd-5th grades
Setting: Texas, late 1800's
Subjects: Cowboys, cattle drives, Texas
     This book is based on the life of George W. Saunders, from information gathered about him by his grandchildren.  He was a real Texas cowboy just after the Civil War ended.  This book contains stories of several of his lively adventures and should be exciting for young readers.  It also gives a feel for the wild and untamed nature of life during those times. 

Sarah, Plain and Tall
Author:  MacLachlan, Patricia
Publisher:  Harper & Row, New York, 1985
Reading/Interest Level:  3rd-5th grades
Setting:  Great Plains
Subjects:  Farming, family life, step-mothers
     Anna's mother died when her brother Caleb was born.  Caleb wants to know what his mother was like and why his father no longer sings.  Their father places an advertisement for a mail-order bride, which is answered by Sarah Wheaton from Maine.  After exchanging letters, Sarah comes out to meet them and decide if she can live so far away from the sea.  Sarah learns to plow fields, ride a horse and drive a wagon, while the family learns to love Sarah.  The simple, poetic story of love and loneliness is a Newbery Award winner.  MacLachlan keeps the time and setting somewhat vague, although Kansas has claimed it for their own since the Hallmark film based on the book was shot in Kansas.  Sarah is a strong and independent character and the feelings of the children are well developed.  Death during childbirth was a frequent tragedy on the plains, yet this is one of the few stories in which it is depicted.

Save Queen of Sheba
Author:  Moeri, Louise
Publisher:  E.P. Dutton, New York, 1981
Reading/Interest Level:  4th-7th grades
Setting:  Oregon Trail, Nebraska--Wyoming territory, just east of Fort Laramie, approx. 1860's or 1870's
Subjects:  Pioneers, encounters between Whites and (hostile) Indians, survival.
     A twelve-year old boy named King David is traveling on the Oregon Trail with his family when a section of the wagon train is attacked by a Sioux raiding party.  The injured boy and his six-year-old sister, Queen of Sheba, who was hidden under a mattress, are the only survivors.   However, he believes that his that his parents' wagon and others may have escaped.  King David suffers from a head injury, hunger, exhaustion and fear of another attack, trying to lead his frail and obstinate sister to safety.
 A large wagon train did not offer as much protection as one might suppose, since they were often forced to split into smaller groups, in search of food for the animals or due to accidents along the way.  Young children who walked along side the wagons were also at risk of getting lost.  This novel gives some idea of perils on such a journey.  It also describes the skill of
tracking which King David used to follow the wagons.  The author's intent was to write a survival story and this book is not based on a real incident.  Some readers may be put off by graphic descriptions of death.
Related children's fiction: Grasshopper Summer  also describes losing (and finding) a child on a wagon train journey, as well as other difficulties encountered on the trail.

Red-Dirt Jessie
Author:  Myers, Anna
Publisher:  Walker & Co., New York, 1992
Reading/Interest Level:  3rd-5th grades
Setting:  Oklahoma, 1929
Subjects:  Family life, Great Depression, farming, death, dogs
     After her little sister dies, Jessie's father falls into a depression which neither the family nor their doctor can lift him from.  Her aunt and uncle give up their neighboring farm and head to California in search of work.  To offset her family's problems, Jessie focuses her attention on taming a wild dog named Ring.  Jesse is determined to tame the dog and help her father in
spite of the odds against her.  This is a moving story of strength and determination set in the Great Depression.
Related children's fiction: Dust for Dinner is a reader which also takes place in the Dust Bowl.
Non-Fiction: Children of the Dust Bowl.- The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp by Jerry Stanley, Crown Publishers, New York, 1992.  This upper level children's book gives information about the conditions in the Midwest that forced families to travel to California in search of better lives.  Many of these families went to the San Joaquin Valley hoping to work picking crops.  Unfortunately, there was little work, and many families lived in squalid "Okieville" camps.  This book tells of their poverty and desperation, but also of a school set up for the children.

Streams to the River, River to the Sea: A Novel of Sacagawea
Author: O'Dell, Scott
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1986
Reading/Interest Level: 4th-7th grades
Setting: North Dakota (territory) to the Pacific Ocean, 1802-1806
Subjects:  Sacagawea, Lewis and Clark Expedition, Minnetaree Indians, Shoshone Indians, encounters between Whites and Indians whites, encounters between Whites and Indians, Native Americans, childbirth, explorers
      Sacagawea is a young Shoshone when she is captured by the Minnetarees.  The chief of the Minnetarees intends his son, Red Hawk, to marry her, but Red Hawk loses her to a French trader during a game.  The trader, Charbonneau, later agrees to accompany Captains Lewis and Clark on their expedition.  They also want Sacagawea and her infant son to come,
believing that she will be help as a guide and in trading with the Shoshone.
 In writing this fictionalized account of the expedition, O'Dell relied on the Journals of Lewis and Clark.  The novel includes information on tribal life, encounters with a number of tribes, as well as many details of the arduous four thousand mile journey.
Related Non-Fiction:
Upper to Adult: Waheenee: an Indian Girl's Story: Told by Herself  to Gilbert L. Wilson, University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 1981.  This biographical account of a Hidatsa Indian woman was originally published in 1921.  It gives a wealth of information on the traditions, customs and lifestyle of the Hidatsa Indians who lived near the mouth of the Knife River in what is now North Dakota.  The Hidatsa tribe and the closely related Mandans, were described by Lewis and Clark and lived close to where their expedition began.

Night of the Twisters
Author: Ruckman, Ivy
Publisher: Thomas Crowell, New York, 1984
Reading/Interest Level: 3rd-6th grades
Setting: Grand Island, Nebraska, 1980
Subjects: Tornados, family life, friendship, Nebraska
      Based on an actual event, this is the story of twelve-year-old Dan Hatch and what happened to him and his family and friends the night that a string of tornados devastated his town of Grand Island.  Dan is left alone with his friend Arthur and his baby brother when the first twister strikes.  His quick thinking gets them all safely down to the basement bathroom, where they experience the full force of the twister pulling away the house over them.  After the twister subsides, they struggle to get out of the basement, find their families and get through the most terrifying night Grand Island has ever known.  Dan and his family are fictional, but the events are real.  This book is a fast, engaging read and one of the few books written about contemporary life in the Plains.
Related Children's books:
Intermediate or Upper: Tornado! Poems by Arnold Adoff, Delacorte Press, New York, 1977. This book, which can be read as one long poem, or a number of shorter sections, depicts a tornado heading toward a small Ohio town.  Describes the tornado, family preparations, the impact and aftermath.  Vivid black and white illustrations.

The Chichi Hoohoo Bogeyman
Author:  Sneve, Virginia Driving Hawk
Publisher:  University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 1993
Reading/Interest Level: 3rd-5th grades
Setting:  South Dakota, approx. 1970's
Subjects:  Family life, cousins, Dakota Indians, Sioux Indians, Hopi Indians, supernatural, South Dakota
    While visiting their Sioux grandparents, three cousins learn about the Hopi hoohoo and Sioux chichi, which are similar to the white idea of the bogeyman.  Later the girls disobey their relatives by crossing a river where on the other side they encounter a strange man they call the chichi hoohoo bogeyman.  Eventually, imaginations and fears get the best of them.  They
confess what they have done and discover the real identity of the man in the woods.  This simple story combines aspects of Native American folklore with modern daily life to make an interesting and slightly spooky story.  Family relationships are strong and the friendships and tensions between the cousins realistic.  The parents of one cousin must decide between continuing to live on a Hopi mesa or taking a job in town and moving away from family
and a traditional lifestyle.  A family tree at the beginning helps clarify the family relationships.

High Elks Treasure
Author:   Sneve, Virginia Driving Hawk
Publisher:   Holiday House, New York, 1972
Reading/Interest Level:  4th-6th
Setting: Dakota reservation, 1970's
Subjects:  Family life, Sioux Indians, horses, encounters between Indians and whites, outlaws, cousins, South Dakota
     Three plots converge in this story of modern and ancient Sioux.  In the first, eight grader, Joe High Elk and his father are breeding horses in hopes of rebuilding Joe's great-grandfather's once mighty herd.  During a storm, Joe discovers a relic in a cave on family property, which the family believes once belonged to High Elk.  When Joe encounters horse rustlers, he also finds his long lost cousin.  A brief introduction tells the story of the original High Elk, Joe's greatgrandfather, who was present at the Battle of Little Big Horn.  The importance of both family and Sioux heritage are central to this book.  Historical references are made to the Battle of Little Big Horn and the initial settlement of the Dakota reservation.  Sneve describes some of the historical and ongoing struggles between Sioux peoples and whites, as her characters work to rebuild some of their cultural heritage.  A glossary
of Lakota words and a family tree are included.
Related children's books:
Intermediate upper non-fiction: The Story of Sitting Bull: Great Sioux Chief by Lisa Eisenberg, Dell Publishing, New York, 1991. This biography of the life of Sitting Bull, describes the Battle of Little Bighorn and gives many details of Sioux tribal life.  It describes Sioux child rearing practices, a buffalo hunt, Sioux beliefs, Indian battles and the U.S. Government's treatment of Sioux and other Indian nations in the mid-1800's.  It also provides information about a vision quest and a coup stick, which are discussed in When Thunder Spoke by Sneve.

When Thunder Spoke
Author:   Sneve, Virginia Driving Hawk
Publisher:   Nebraska University Press, Nebraska, 1993
Reading/Interest Level:   6th and up
Setting:   Dakota Reservation, approx. 1970's
Subjects:  Family life, Sioux Indians, Dakota Reservation, visions, supernatural, lifestyles, encounters between Indians and whites, Dakota
      Norman Two Bull is a fifteen year old who lives with his parents on a Dakota Reservation.  When his grandfather dreams that Norman finds a sacred object on Thunder Butte, Norman agrees to make the dangerous climb.  There he finds a Wakan, and ancient coup stick, which his grandfather believes has sacred powers.  Norman is pulled between his grandfather's Old Ways and his mother's Christian beliefs.  However, good things start happening to the family after he finds the stick and Norman learns more about the traditions of his tribe.  This story describes a vision quest, discusses the importance of Sioux connections with nature and the land, includes tensions and misunderstandings between Sioux and whites, and portrays the very real conflicts and choices Sioux must make between modern (white) and traditional lifestyles.  A brief glossary of Sioux words is included.

An Orphan for Nebraska
Related children's fiction:
Orphan Train Quartet -- Caught in the Act (1988), A Family Apart (1987), In the Face of Danger (1988), A Place to Belong (1989).  All by Joan Lowery Nixon, all Published by Bantam.  Stories of the six Kelly children who are sent from New York to Missouri in 1856 to live with farm
families.

The Sodbuster Venture
Author:   Talbot, Charlene Joy
Publisher:  Atheneum, New York, 1982
Reading/Interest Level:  4th-7th grades
Setting:  Kansas, 1870
Subjects: Homesteading, family life, friendships, death, blizzards, outlaws, sex roles, cattle drives, Kansas
      Thirteen-year-old Maud has been hired to care for a dying man.  His last wish is that Maud help his fiance, Miss Warren, take over his homestead claim.  Maud, who does not want to return to live with her sister and abusive brother-in-law, is delighted when Miss Warren agrees to try homesteading for a year.  After some opposition, Miss Warren becomes a teacher.  Together, the two females resist troublesome neighbors, plant crops, take in a young cow hand injured on a cattle drive, survive a blizzard, entertain suitors, become good friends, and learn to enjoy their way of life.  There are a number of real life accounts of women homesteaders.  This novel provides a welcome contrast to traditional family homestead stories.  It offers strong female characters, details of homesteading life, and insights into difficulties single women encountered on
the plains.

Grasshopper Summer
Author:  Turner, Ann
Publisher:  Macmillan, New York, 1989
Reading/Interest Level:  4th-6th
Setting:  Kentucky and Dakota Territory, 1874
Subjects:  Pioneers, homesteading, family life, house construction, grasshoppers, Dakota Territory
      Samuel and his younger brother Billy live in post Civil War Kentucky with their parents and grandparents.  Samuel loves it there, but his father his depressed by memories of the war and by the family's the loss of land.  He wants to make a new start in new territory.  Sam is afraid of the open land of the Northern Plains, which is so different from Kentucky.  But, he takes
pride in his ability to help build their dugout and plant crops.  When  rasshoppers come and destroy what they have worked for, Sam doesn't want to give up.  Subtle tensions between the grandfather and father, insights into the South after the Civil War, and arguments between families moving west together add levels of richness to this book.   There are also descriptions of building a dugout and being attacks by grasshoppers.

Thrashin' Time.- Harvest Days in the Dakotas
Author:  Weitzman, David
Publisher:  David R. Godine, Massachusetts, 1991
Reading/Interest Level:  3rd-6th grades
Setting:  North Dakota, 1912
Subjects:  Farming, family life, steam engines, harvesting, Norwegian immigrants, North Dakota
      Steam threshers have just come to North Dakota and farmers realize that, for better or worse, farming will be forever changed.  This is the story of Peter and his family's first year harvesting with a steam engine.  Peter and his sister Anna help in the kitchen preparing the huge quantities of food the thrashing crew will eat.  Later, Peter becomes a "tankee" hauling water to the steam engine, and then drives a grain wagon.  The engineer, Mr. Parker, is so impressed with Peter, which he gives him two books on training to be a steam engineer.  Weitzman has created a richly detailed and descriptive work which captures the hard work of harvesting for both men and for women, a child's pride in hard work and the "beginning of real scientific farming. He details the food preparation necessary, includes family stories, and describes all aspects of harvesting, including some images of the life of migrant field workers.   The picture book format includes lovely, large line drawings by the author.  The end papers identify parts of a thresher.  This book combines a good story with rich information and exquisite drawings.

Little House on the Prairie
Author:  Wilder, Laura Ingalls
Publisher:  Harper & Row, New York, 1935
Reading/Interest Level:  3rd-6th grades
Setting:  Kansas Indian Territory, 1870's
Subjects:  Homesteading, pioneers, family life, house construction, Christmas, encounters between Indians and whites Indians, Osage Indians, prairie fires, wolves, Kansas Territory, Indian Territory
     In this second book in the series, Pa complains that Wisconsin is getting too crowded and the Ingalls family moves west.  With the help of a neighbor, they build a log house where they celebrate Christmas.  One night wolves entirely surround the house.  They have a number of encounters with Indians, and finally move on since they have settled in Indian territory.
Houses are a recurring theme in Wilder's books.  In this novel, there are numerous details about living in a covered wagon and building a log cabin.  Mr. Ingalls exemplifies the restless pioneer spirit which lead to much of the western movement.  This book also gives some idea (through the eyes of a child) of the tensions between the whites and Native Americans at that time.  Black and white drawings by Garth Williams enhance all the Wilder novels.
Related children's fiction:
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  The first book in the series, ells the early story of the Ingalls family when they lived in Wisconsin.  Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Technically not considered one of the Little House Books, this is the story of Almanzo Wilder's childhood on a farm in New York. On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder ---- The third book in the series.   Although Ma Ingalls liked Plum Creek, because it was a more civilized place for the girls,
they suffered crop failures, went into debt and the family contracted Scarlet Fever, which blinded Mary.

By the Shores of Silver Lake
Author:  Wilder, Laura Ingalls
Publisher:  Harper & Row, New York, 1939
Reading/Interest Level:  3rd-6th
Setting:  South Dakota, 1880's
Subjects:  Homesteading, family life, railroads, pioneers, South Dakota
      A Pa is offered a job working on the railroads, which are going through South Dakota.  Ma Ingalls is reluctant to leave, but Pa sees it as a golden opportunity to homestead and make a new start.  They live for awhile in a railroad camp with the "rough" men who are building the railroads.  During a homesteading rush, they turn their temporary lodging into a boarding
house for homesteaders.  Later, Pa selects a piece of property and builds a claim shanty for them to homestead.  Detailed descriptions of railroad construction are included.  Pa builds both a store in town and a claim shanty.  Some details of these buildings are included.  There is also an
interesting tension between "civilized and uncivilized" as Ma struggles to "protect" the girls from the railroad workers and later, the homesteaders.
Related Non-Fiction:  Moll : The Journal of Mollie Dorsay Sanford in Nebraska and Colorado Territories, 1857-1866 University of Nebraska Press, 1959.  This diary of a girl growing up in Nebraska, gives information about her family taking in passing pioneers for the night.  Despite the
fact that her family had eight children living in a small soddy, they often took travelers in for the night, feeding them dinner and breakfast.  The crowded living conditions and extra work for the family are discussed.

The Long Winter
Author:  Wilder, Laura Ingalls
Publisher:  Harper & Row, New York, 1940
Reading/Interest Level:  3rd-6th grades
Setting:  De Smet, South Dakota, 1880's
Subjects:  Homesteading, family life, Christmas, blizzards, trains, South Dakota
      When an October blizzard hits their uninsulated homestead and an Indian warns of a long winter, Pa Ingalls decides to move his family to their store in town.  He hurriedly makes preparations, but winter is harder and longer than expected.  The trains are unable to run and the family runs out of firewood, kerosene and food.  Pa brings straw from the farm which they tie into twists for heat.  They huddle by the kitchen stove, and grind wheat seed in a coffee mill for food.  Almanzo Wilder and another boy in town make a treacherous drive out to a homestead to buy two wagon loads of wheat.  Wilder describes a truly desperate time in the life of the family and the little community as a whole.  There is a struggle in this book between individualism--Almanzo hides his seed wheat so he can use it to plant on his homestead in Spring--vs. community--a need to keep the town from starving.

Little Town on the Prairie
Author:  Wilder, Laura Ingalls
Publisher:  Harper & Row, New York, 1941
Reading/Interest Level:  3rd-6th grades
Setting:  De Smet, South Dakota, 1880's
Subjects:  Homesteading, family life, hired girls, sewing, rural schools, country vs. town, teaching, friendships, community life, South Dakota
     Laura takes a job in town to earn money to help send her blind sister, Mary, away to college.  Laura attends school, attends a church social, literary meetings and a birthday party.  At the end, fifteen year-old Laura is certified to teach school.  In this book, the Ingalls finally have a little bit of money.  The girls are growing up and town is becoming more established.
 Wilder gives good descriptions of hand sewing and of fashions of that time.  A growing number of social events in town are described.  These are typical of community life on the Prairie.  Interestingly, Pa who earlier wanted to get away from people, becomes a member of the school board and one of the town leaders.  At fifteen, Laura's childhood is about over, as she takes a job and becomes a working member of society.

These Happy Golden Years
Author:  Wilder, Laura Ingalls
Publisher:  Harper & Row, New York, 1943
Reading/Interest Level:  3th-6th grades
Setting:  De Smet, South Dakota, 1880's
Subjects:  Family life, school teachers, schools, courtship, South Dakota
      This brief time in Laura's life was probably her happiest.  Although she disliked her first position as a teacher, and especially the family she had to stay with, Almanzo helped to make her life bearable by taking her home to her family each weekend.  She was shy and puzzled by his attentions at first, but soon came to depend on him.  Later, Mary came home for a summer visit and Laura got a teaching position close to home.  Almanzo took her riding on Saturdays and eventually their friendship grew, until he asked her to marry him.
 This book tells the story of Laura growing up.  At sixteen, she is already a school teacher and soon to be married.  Almanzo, "Manly" Wilder seems extremely capable and dashing with his sled and matching horses.  Yet, as the next book in the series shows, even he has an extremely difficult time succeeding as a Plains farmer. 

The First Four Years
Author:  Wilder, Laura Ingalls
Publisher:  Harper Trophy, New York, 1971
Reading/Interest Level:  3rd-7th
Setting:  De Smet, South Dakota, 1885-89
Subjects:  Homesteading, family life, farming, harvesting, childbirth, death, encounters between Indians and whites Indians, tornados, blizzards, drought, prairie fires, South Dakota
      Before Laura and Almanzo marry, Laura comments that she does not want to marry a farmer because she thinks the life is too hard, especially for a woman.  Almanzo argues that it is better than being a merchant, since farmers have their independence.  He claims that a farmer who works hard enough can make all the money he wants.  They agree to try farming for
three years (which is extended to four), and this novel details their debts, financial worries, crop failures, illnesses and the other mishaps that befall them during the four years.  Although Almanzo claims that a farmer who works hard enough can make all the money he wants, bad weather again
and again defeat them.  As they struggle to "prove up" their claims, they fall deeper into debt and are lucky to pay off the interest on their debts.  They lose their homestead claim and their house burns down, but Laura is encouraged that perhaps they can make it after all.  This slim volume was never completed and was published after Wilder's death.  It is therefore not considered a part of the "Little House Series" and is much less detailed than her earlier works.  It seems a sketchy cataloging of events she may have intended to flesh out at a later time.  It also has a less optimistic tone.  Despite the attempt at an upbeat ending, this book seems to argue with the earlier works in the Little House Series, which claim that a tough pioneering spirit can conquer all.
Related children's fiction:
A Son of the Middle Border by Hamlin Garland

  YOUNG ADULT

Dakota Dream
Author:  Bennett, James
Publisher:  Scholastic, New York, 1994
Reading/Interest Level:  7th and up
Setting:  Illinois and Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, contemporary
Subjects:  Orphans, foster care, Sioux Indians, visions, Native Americans, encounters between Whites and Indians
       Floyd has lived in foster homes and group homes since he was four.  He is new fifteen.   He has red hair but dyes it black and prefers to be called Charly Black Crow, because his destiny to become a Dakota Indian.  He is basically a good kid, but teachers and social services people have little patience for his "Indian ideas." When things go from bad to worse in his latest group home, he runs away to Pine Ridge Reservation to seek his destiny.  Here he is treated with a dignity and understanding he is not accustomed to.  He goes on a vision quest and begins to understand himself better.   This book gives realistic details of life in a group home and of the social services system.   It provides an interesting contrast to books on orphans in earlier eras.  It also gives a detailed description of a vision quest.
Related children's books:
Intermediate and Upper: An Orphan for Nebraska, That's One Ornery Orphan, When Thunder Spoke (vision quest and reservation life)
Non-Fiction:  Black Elk Speaks, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee


0 Pioneers!
Author:  Cather, Willa
Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1988
Reading/Interest Level:  7th and up
Setting:  Nebraska, late 1800's to early 1900's
Subjects:  Farming, family life, friendships, Swedish immigrants, Norwegian immigrants, Czech immigrants, German immigrants, death, Nebraska
       After her father's death, his eldest daughter becomes the head of the household. It is Alexandra's courage, foresight, and enthusiastic love of the land which turn the meager farm into a prosperous enterprise.  In time her two younger brothers move into town and she is able to send her youngest brother away to school, where she hopes he will find an easier life.   However,  he returns to the farm and becomes involved in a tragic romance which shakes the entire family.   This classic plains novel captures the spirit of endurance and optimism which was characteristic of so many pioneers.  Alexandra is a strong and intelligent protagonist who loves the land and finds her strength in it.  This novel, which is about second generation  homesteaders, shows that it is possible to overcome the numerous hardships of settling an untamed land.

My Antonia
Author:  Cather, Willa
Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1926
Reading/Interest Level:  7th and up
Setting:  Nebraska, late 1800's
Subjects:  Farming, family life, friendships, Czech immigrants, death, orphans, country vs. town, hired girls, Nebraska
      This book is told in the form of a memoir by Jim Burden.  It intertwines his experience growing up on his grandparents farm in Nebraska after the death of his parents, with that of a Czech girl named Antonia.  Antonia's family are in dire poverty, and the father kills himself in despair.  Antonia works like a man on the farm and later goes to work in town, as a hired girl.  Throughout all this, Antonia never loses her spirit or love of life, and Jim's memoir is a tribute to her spirit.  This book gives graphic details of the poverty and despair of many early farmers.  Discrimination against immigrants is depicted as is the hard work done by both of farmer and
hired girls.  My Antonia is often considered Cather's greatest work.

The Prairie
Author:  Cooper, James Fenimore
Publisher:  J. H. Sears, New York,
Reading/Interest Level:  5th and up
Setting:  Plains of the United States, 1804
Subjects:  Pioneers, encounters between Whites and Indians, Pawnees, Sioux, Plains
      This action-packed adventure takes place shortly after the Louisiana Purchase. Ishmael Bush is traveling west with his family, when they meet Natty Bumppo, a trapper, who attempts to help the family survive in the wilderness.  That night, Bumppo, and two others are captured by a band of Sioux, who also steal the party's horses.  From then on, the action is
non-stop.  The various plots involve wife-stealing, Indian attacks, disputes between Indian tribes, murder and romance.  Although this book may seem quaint and outdated, it deserves a place here as the first popular work of fiction written about the Plains.  It is the fifth and last book in James
Fenimore Cooper's classic Leatherstocking series, and was once very popular among children and adults alike.  It also serves as a good example of the kind of fiction popular at the time of the pioneers, and may even have influenced some of their feelings about westward travel.

A Son of the Middle Border
Author:  Garland, Hamlin
Publisher:  Macmillan, New York, 1923
Reading/Interest Level:  6th and up
Setting:  Wisconsin, Iowa and South Dakota, mid to late 1800's
Subjects:  Family life, pioneers, farming, writing, South Dakota
      This autobiographical account of Garland's family, starts with his father returning from the Civil War.  His father felt restless and trapped in Wisconsin and believing in the pioneer dream of a better life, moved his family west.  This book is the account of the family's travels and travails, doing the backbreaking and sometimes heartbreaking work of farming.  They are constantly trying to find the prosperity their father sees in the West.  Garland describes the hard work of farming in great detail.  He is also very conscious of the work and suffering of farmers' wives.  Garland eventually grows up and leaves the farm, heading back East to become a writer.  However, he can never get far away from the images of farm life.
 This book was very controversial when first released, as it was one of the first to give a realistic portrait of the hardships of farm life and the political pressures that kept farmers poor.   Garland turned away from the romantic, idealistic view of the pioneer so popular at the time, and gave a graphic description of the poverty and despair many encountered. 

Giants in the Earth
Author:  Rolvaag, 0. E.
Publisher:  Harper, New York, 1964
Reading/Interest Level:  6th and up
Setting:  South Dakota
Subjects:  Homesteading, farming, family life, Norwegian immigrants, death, South Dakota
      Per Hansa and his family traveled from Norway to South Dakota with small group of other Norwegian immigrants.  His wife, Beret hated the new land and longed to return home.  But Per Hansa saw the promise and possibilities.  He worked tirelessly at the hard work of farming, and also made some shrewd business moves.  Although some of his neighbors grew
jealous of him, he became more confident with each success.  His wife, however, slips deeper into despair and fears for her husband's soul.  Finally, his wife convinces him to go for a minister to comfort a dying friend, despite the bad weather, Per Hansa sets out, but is lost in a snowstorm.  This novel was originally written in Norwegian and translated into several languages for European audiences.  It has become a classic saga of the struggling American pioneer.  Rolvaag does an especially good job of separating the determination and optimism of the male with the fears and loneliness of the female pioneer, which is a reoccurring theme in many plains novels.   It also describes the stark and long winters in the Dakotas. 

   RELATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES
 

Peoples of the American West.- Historical Perspectives through Children's Literature, by Mary Hurlbut Cordier and Maria A. Perez-Stable, Scarecrow Press, N.J., 1989.

Exploring the Plains States Through Literature, edited by Carolyn S. Brodie, Oryx Press, Az., 1994.
 
 












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