Reading and a Prairie Walk
After my morning walk along our newly paved biking/walking trail, I came across this wonderful rural view of the prairie wetlands and librarian that I am, tried to come up with a list of books that have a rural setting in this part of the country. Many are historical fiction:
Elementary and Middle School:
Little House on the Prairie Series Laura Ingalls Wilder
Caddie Woodlawn Carol Ryrie Brink
Caddie Woodlawn is a real adventurer. She'd rather hunt than sew and plow than bake, and tries to beat her brother's dares every chance she gets. Caddie is friends with Indians, who scare most of the neighbors -- neighbors who, like her mother and sisters, don't understand her at all.
Hattie Big Sky Kirby Lawson
Alone in the world, teen-aged Hattie is driven to prove up on her uncle's homesteading claim.
For years, sixteen-year-old Hattie's been shuttled between relatives. Tired of being Hattie Here-and-There, she courageously leaves Iowa to prove up on her late uncle's homestead claim near Vida, Montana
Sarah, Plain, and Tall (series) Patricia MacLachlan
Set in the late nineteenth century and told from young Anna's point of view, Sarah, Plain and Tall tells the story of how Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton comes from Maine to the prairie to answer Papa's advertisement for a wife and mother.
Three Names Patricia MacLachlan
A child's great-grandfather reminisces about the times he and his dog Three Names went to school on prairie roads in a wagon pulled by horses.
Addie's Dakota Winter and Addie Across the Prairie Laurie Lawlor
Addie's a pioneer now in the vast Dakota territory, far from her friend Eleanor and Iowa. And now she must care for her youngetst brother as Ma, Pa, and the older boys and Mr. and Mrs. Fency leave to build a home before winter comes. She's all alone with two year-old Burt when the terrifying prairie fire begins!
Prairie Songs Pam Conrad
Louisa and her family live in a Nebraska prairie sod house. It isn't until their new neighbors from New York move in that Louisa begins to understand that somewhere else people live differently.
Prairie School Lois Lenski
I t's the worst blizzard in fifty years! Delores is very ill, but there's no way to get through the snow. How long will she be stranded at school? Out on the South Dakota prairie, the winters are fierce. This storm is the worst one yet: It's below freezing outside, and the winds are howling. All of the other kids have gone home, but Delores's family can't get to her, so she has to stay at the school. Between a fuel shortage and having to boil snow for drinking water, it's been hard for both Delores and her teacher, Miss Martin. Now Delores is very ill. How will Miss Martin get her to the doctor in all this snow? Prairie School was inspired by letters from children at a real South Dakota prairie school, which Lenski then visited during the severe blizzards of the winter of 1950.
Dancing Teepees Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve (Book of poems)
High School/Adult
O' Pioneers Willa Cather
Set on the Nebraska prairie where Willa Cather (1873–1947) grew up, this powerful early novel tells the story of the young Alexandra Bergson, whose dying father leaves her in charge of the family and of the lands they have struggled to farm.
My Antonia Willa Cather
This is the story of Ántonia Shimerda, who arrives on the Nebraska frontier as part of a family of Bohemian emigrants. Her story is told through the eyes of Jim Burden, a neighbor who will befriend Ántonia, teach her English, and follow the remarkable story of her life.
Round House Louis Erdrich (one of my favorites)
The Round House transports readers to the Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota. It is the story of a boy on the cusp of manhood who seeks justice and understanding in the wake of a terrible crime that upends and forever transforms his family.
Work of Wolves Kent Myers (Excellent read for high school students)
When fourteen-year-old Carson Fielding bought his first horse from Magnus Yarborough, it became clear that the teenager was a better judge of horses than the rich landowner was of humans. Years later, Carson, now a skilled and respected horse trainer, grudgingly agrees to train Magnus's horses and teach his wife to ride. But as Carson becomes disaffected with the power-hungry Magnus, he also grows more and more attracted to the rancher's wife, and their relationship sets off a violent chain of events that unsettles their quiet reservation border town in South Dakota. Thrown into the drama are Earl Walks Alone, an Indian trying to study his way out of the reservation and into college, and Willi, a German exchange student confronting his family's troubled history.
Plainsong Kent Haruf
Kent Haruf interweaves the stories of a pregnant high school girl, a lonely teacher, a pair of boys abandoned by their mother, and a couple of crusty bachelor farmers.
Montana, 1948 Larry Watson
Watson's novel about a middle-class Montana family torn apart by scandal during the summer of 1948
The Miseducation of Cameron Post Emily M. Danforth
Cameron Post feels a mix of guilt and relief when her parents die in a car accident. Their deaths mean they will never learn the truth she eventually comes to—that she's gay. Orphaned, Cameron comes to live with her old-fashioned grandmother and ultraconservative aunt Ruth. There she falls in love with her best friend, a beautiful cowgirl. When she’s eventually outed, her aunt sends her to God’s Promise, a religious conversion camp that is supposed to “cure” her homosexuality. At the camp, Cameron comes face to face with the cost of denying her true identity.
Giants in the Earth Ole Rolvaag
The classic story of a Norwegian pioneer family's struggles with the land and the elements of the Dakota Territory as they try to make a new life in America.
The Bones of Plenty Lois Hudson
Hudson's powerful novel centers on a proud, determined, and independent North Dakota wheat farmer, his hardworking wife, and their family as they struggle during the Depression years of 1933 and 1934.
Blind Your Ponies Stanley Gordon West
Sam Pickett never expected to settle in this dried-up shell of a town on the western edge of the world. He's come here to hide from the violence and madness that have shattered his life, but what he finds is what he least expects. There's a spirit that endures in Willow Creek, Montana.
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