A Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People * A NSTA/CBC Best STEM Book Frank Lloyd Wright, a young boy from the prairie, becomes America's first world-famous architect in this inspirational nonfiction picture book introducing organic architecture -- a style he created based on the relationship between buildings and the natural world -- which transformed the American home. Frank Lloyd Wright loved the Wisconsin prairie where he was born, with its wide-open sky and waves of tall grass. As his family moved across the United States, young Frank found his own home in shapes: rectangles, triangles, half-moons, and circles. When he returned to his beloved prairie, Frank pursued a career in architecture. But he didn't think the Victorian-era homes found there fit the prairie landscape. Using his knowledge and love of shapes, Frank created houses more organic to the land. He redesigned the American home inside and out, developing a truly unique architecture style that celebrated the country's landscape and lifestyle. Author Barb Rosenstock and artist Christopher Silas Neal explore the early life and creative genius of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, highlighting his passion, imagination, and ingenuity.

Summer on the prairies during the Depression years was not a vacation from school; it was hard work.

Boy Life on the Prairie was first published in 1899, some eighteen years before the appearance of Hamlin Garland?s A Son of the Middle Border. The broad scope of the latter book, as B. R. McElderry, Jr., tells us in the introduction to this new edition of Boy Life, has overshadowed the ?earlier and better book of reminiscence dealing specifically with Garland?s boyhood experiences on an Iowa farm from 1869 to about 1881. When he wrote Boy Life on the Prairie Garland was much closer to the subject than he was in 1917, and he had the advantage of a more restricted aim: to tell directly and specifically what it was like to grow up in northeast Iowa in the years just after the Civil War. It may safely be said that no one else has given so clear and informative an account. When one considers other accounts of boyhood in nineteenth-century America?those of Aldrich, Clemens, Warner, and Howells, for example?one is impressed with the thoroughness and precision of Garland?s book. Aside from Main-Travelled Roads, Boy Life, is probably the best single book that Garland ever wrote.? The Bison Book edition is the first in more than fifty years to reproduce in full the 1899 text. It also includes an introduction addressed ?To My Young Readers? and the ?Author?s Notes? which appeared in the 1926 edition published by Allyn & Bacon. The forty-seven line drawings and six full-page illustrations by E. W. Deming are reproduced from the 1899 edition. In his introduction, Dr. McElderry provides a thorough and interesting analysis of Boy Life and compares it with the sketches written in 1888 which were Garland?s first attempt at reminiscence, as well as with A Son of the Middle Border.

'With reverence and warmth the author writes and paints his memories of boyhood on a 1930 prairie farm in winter. The narrative is colorful and interesting...the illustrations, one for each of twenty brief flashbacks, are rich in texture and painted in the American folk-primitive style; nearly all are small triumphs which can stand alone.' ---Booklist

This is an art book which highlights the possibility of using natural, organic materials as art supplies and inspiration.

Resilience. Persistence. Determination. Ingenuity. These are qualities farmers possess, and they were required to be a successful pioneer. They also happened to be some of the founding characteristics of the Brewster family. Douglas K. Brewster was born into a long line of Brewster men, proud of their American roots, proud to be pioneers in Saskatchewan, Canada, and proud to be farmers. Their lineage marks their contribution to the various communities—big and small—they’ve inhabited over the years. Doug grew up in Earl Grey, Saskatchewan, but the pursuit of knowledge carried him all across Saskatchewan and Alberta, as well as to other areas of Canada and the United States. A Lucky Prairie Boy is the story of Douglas K. Brewster, a farm kid with a rich family history and a keen mind for the bigger picture. Always looking to leave people, places, and inventions better than when he found them, Doug pursued an education in business and professional accounting before starting his manufacturing, construction and farming businesses. He was just as concerned about the farming industry as a whole as he was about his neighbour’s farm and livelihood. But this story is not just about Doug. Always reflecting on the bigger picture, where his family came from to where they are now and will go in the future, Doug intricately weaves his family’s history and his ancestors’ stories throughout his own life’s narrative. Through a gruelling but happy childhood, first and second chances at love, failed and successful business ventures, friends cherished and lost, and unexpected and ongoing health struggles, A Lucky Prairie Boy is a testament to the Brewster family.

"As a storm looms in the prairie sky, a boy rides out to find his wayward younger brother. The courageous story of one boy's exciting rescue adventure" Cf. Our choice, 2003.