Written for middle school students, this history is spiced with tales, photos and sidebars seldom seen in history books. My daughter loved the book because these characters match her fictional favorites for fortitude and impact. "Hey, Mom, listen to this..." Apparent exhaustive research, unusual photos, strong creativity. The story-telling charm is off-set, however, by misspelled words, omission of prehistoric eras, and rewrite of characters who are not socially mainstream or exemplary. Kansas was more diverse and colorful than this book portrays. Was truth thinned to assure that the book would "sell" to schools? History is meant to be rich. It is about life, itself.

Well- it's about time! This book will let the world know that there much more to Kansas that those drab monochrome tones we see every time we watch the beginning scenes of the Wizard of Oz!. While still being very informative, this book was a real pleasure to read. It's done in a "story style" that was certainly more interesting that the boring old history texts of my youth! The book really allows the reader to relate to the many fascinating historical figures as genuine people rather than mere ghostly gray figures of days gone by. The whole book simply struck me as "being about real people for real people". The great original artwork and wonderful photographs and post cards were the "icing on the cake". Well done to the team that assembled this fine work! I hope its serves well those curious to know about the Sunflower State for years to come!

I have read this book and I found it a great read! The art work is very good. The Kansas school children should feel special to be able to use such a informative book. The photos are super and there are so many of them! The end of the chapter postcards are really a neat idea. This brings Kansas history to a level of interest for everyone. Wish my state had one like it.

I chose to read this series in chronological order and not the order in which they were written. This being the third to be written but last in order, I read this one last. I must say that I was surprised at how enjoyable a read it was seeing that the last two I read (The Pathfinder and The Pioneers) were pretty disappointing. This novel has excellent descriptions of the prairie setting and the characters involved without weighing the reader down with page upon page of needless descriptions or rhetoric. The story line was very well-conceived, plausable, and coherent; qualities which not many books can boast. Of course, this being the last book in the series, I was concerned about how the author would conclude the saga of Natty Bumpo. Not wanting to spoil anything, I must say that I was very impressed with the way Natty's character was handled. There is nothing worse than reading five or so books and having the author ruin them all by messing up the character at the end. No need to worry here. This novel pretty much has all the ingredients which make The Deerslayer and The Last of the Mohicans exceptional: indian warfare, revenge, some romance, the differences and similarities between Natty's and the American Indian's religious views and philosophy on life, and of course just some good ol' action. I would recommend reading this series in chronological order, but if you do have to skip one of them, The Pioneers can be that one and you would not really miss a beat.

Third in the Leatherstocking Tales series, The Prairie finds Nathaniel Bumppo beyond the Mississippi as the encroachment of civilization pushes him further and further afield. There are five books to the Leatherstocking Tales. Cooper did not write them in chronological order. Accordingly, The Prairie relates the close of Bumppo's career among the Pawnee and Sioux of the Great Plains. As with The Pioneers, The Prairie starts slow and takes time to develop. Additional concessions must be made for a least one plot twist that tickles the limits of plausibility. It should be remembered, however, that the age and the romantic style of writing then in vogue permitted latitude today's novelists are not afforded. Be that as it may, once past this questionable plot development, it matters little for the book is that grand.

Sioux and Pawnee, contesting the plains, find Bumppo, a wagon train of shifty settlers, and a bee-hunting suitor caught between them. What follows is a historical novel which includes every ingredient required for a masterful yarn. Bumppo, in this case "the trapper", represents the ultimate antiestablishmentarian as he longs only for freedom and the space to enjoy it, despising the restrictions of polite society. It is a message that has not lost it's power. Indeed, James Fenimore Cooper, through the Leatherstocking Tales, exquisitely captures a period and place in a manner so evocative that the reader longs to range beside "the trapper" through thick and thin , through the length and breadth of the fledgling American frontier. Having read more than my share of historical fiction, The Leatherstocking Tales rate as one of the finest examples. The Prairie is no exception.

Fare thee well, Natty Bumppo.

This large, very elaborately written book is the first of the Leatherstocking tales Cooper wrote. It is, however, about Natty Bumppo's (aka Deerslayer, Leatherstocking, Hawkeye) final days. In this novel, he's more of a peripheral character, witnessing at least 2 other, very intriguing adventures.

The story is integrated in fantastic descriptions of the prairie; reading it you can almost feel the beauty and power of the unenslaved American wilderness.

This was a very interesting mystery and I really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to reading the previous four books. It isn't often that I find a book set in my home province. I grew up near the main character's childhood home of Indian Head, Saskatchewan. Gordon does an excellent job of describing Saskatchewan.

Kate Henry, Toronto Sports reporter, returns to her prairie hometown to see her mother inducted into the Hall of Fame. I am not a baseball fan but I found the anecdotes about professional women's baseball fascinating. Even more fascinating were the characters and the description of the town. I enjoyed the mystery but it was these other things that made this such an enjoyable read. Ms. Gordon has a very engaging, witty and pleasant style.

I was in Canada and looking for local mystery writers and Alison Gordon was recommended. Prairie Hardball was a good read. Some mysteries telegraph who did it early on in the book. This one doesn't. I didn't figure out who did it until the very end.

This book also paints a vivid picture of life in small town prairie Canada.

I love Prarie Home and Garrison, and this is a great collection. However, it is all music and Tales from Lake Wobegon - none of the other sketches or comedy routines I was hoping for. So, no complaints about what's on the four CDs - just complaints about what's not! I will try one of the other anniversary collections!

I like this collection of stories and songs. I like it because it's a great collection to listen to while you're in a car or on a bus, or plane. I highly recommend this to future Garrison Keillor fans.

This series was wonderful, especially when I listened to it during a cross country trip. It was peaceful and gave the trip even more meaning. Radio shows were before my time, this was a Godsend!

I have read this book and found it to be a down to earth account of growing up in small town America. The author's truth and honesty come out in each story. As a product of small town America I highly recommend this book. I hope he writes another.

This book is a must for anyone who was born or raised in the rural areas of north central united states. It was well written and somehow seems to remind us all of our youth and the memories that go along with our childhood. It has many funny and serious moments. It was great reading and hard to put down, once one started on it. Hopefully the author will followup on with another book that is as good or better.

I loved it! I grew up in small town South Dakota as well and could relate to all his stories about blizzards, hunting, car racing and unique people. There was humor, sadness, joy and sorrow in his book and it touched on all my emotions. I would recommend this book for anyone in the baby boomer generation who grew up in the midwest or would like a personal perspective of life in small town America in the 50's and 60's.

Where the Heart Resides was sent by a daughter who lives in Sydney, Australia, proving that the prairie message has no national or continental boundaries. Daisy Hickman's book speaks to all of us who have experience with living "out there," and is a wonderful antidote for a homesick prairie heart. Her South Dakota is also mine--the same county, the same people, the same river; a place I have always taken for granted because it's Home. No longer: how fortunate we are, those of us who were born to the prairie!

Long before I read Daisy Hickman's book I had a deep and abiding appreciation of the prairie so I was able to enjoy her book all the more because of my experiences. She writes with great sincerity and passion about the land she loves as if she longs to return. If I am right in this assumption, then she will probably decide that the Dakota prairie is not only where her heart resides, but the only place to live.

As I read Where the Heart Resides, I saw images of plain, hard-working people going about their days and nights without any sense of the legacy they were leaving behind. I heard voices of the past relate their wisdom for generations yet to come. And that's the mark of a good book. This book speaks about the timeless wisdom of the prairie while presenting a mysterious gift to those yet to come.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone who wants to bring into their heart and mind an understanding of the American prairie. As Daisy points out, it is not an easy place, but the challenges it presents, when met, can raise the individual to new heights. Just as I feel peace of mind when I walk through the hills and woodlands of the Dakota prairie, I find the same sense of fulfillment and satisfaction in reading Where the Heart Resides.

I purchased this book in South Dakota last October just a few minutes before I crawled onto a bus for a long trip back to New Mexico. In its pages, I found the perfect travel companion.

I would read a little, then look out the window to see its subject. Over and over again this was repeated until the sun went down and I could see only the pages. This book turned an expected marathon into a combination pilgrimage/meditation.

While the mode of transportation was not quite "covered wagon", the book showed me that I can still experience something valuable out there that is untouched by technology and modern life. The book is aptly titled. The lessons described do not compete with our current lifestyle, only compliment and enhance it.

The best part is that I can open its pages today and be back there.

This is an incredibily thorough, detailed book about the life of CB Irwin. Anna Lee Waldo has done an incredible job researching the subject. The book gives a wonderful insight into what life was like for farmers and ranchers in Kansas, Colorado and Wyoming during 1870-1930. As this is a true story, it is often lacking the exciting plot twists that you would have in a novel.

I was consumed by this book. I even read during my lunch hour all the while wondering what would happen next. This is undoubtedly the best book I've ever read. Anna Lee Waldo did a fabulous job of taking a real to life character and telling his life story in a fashion that strongly held my interest from beginning to end. I fully intend to read Waldo's other books.

I was very impressed with this book. I live in Colorado Springs and was amazed at how historical this book is. I have been to the graves of some of the charactors in the book and feel as if I know them.

I have always found Palmer's first books in trilogies to be the best. I had a hard time reading this one, and skimmed over more than the first half of the book. The plot picked up at the end, but I would like to see more involvement of the former characters. It's still a good series I would recommend, though.

What a wonderful book. Katherine left us at the end of Prairie Fire wondering what the Born again Christian Jack and his Bride to be Lass were going to do next. Then in this book she introduces new characters that keep the book so riveting, it is hard to put down. Katherine Palmer writes the books so that you feel that you are a part of the story. She is able to share the gospel with her readers while she keeps you on the edge of your seat with her realistic plot. I do hope she writes the next book quickly!

Great examples of working through spiritually abusive situations. However, it is realistic that the abused don't readily recognize the abuse until they seek God and look for His fruits. Also, realistic example of "it rains on the good and the bad"

This book was a real hoot to read. Ive always loved the language that revolved around the game of baseball. Ring Lardner does a credible job of creating this youthful prospect trying to make big in The Show. The format of writing letters gives it a touch a realism. The language and grammar of this semiliterates lend it a charm that is slightly reminiscent of Huck Finn. His delusional arrogance is more humorous than offensive in the long run. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the literature and journalism that surrounds this great American game.

Ring Lardner's 'You Know Me Al' is a classic of American literature. Continuing in a tradition established by Mark Twain, Ring Lardner writes in a style that captures the dialogue and spirit of the common man.

The sports characters are timeless and their characteristics and foibles are as true today as they were a century ago. And the characteristics really transcend baseball and sports entirely and apply to everyone.

This is a great book and a very enjoyable read.

The travails of the boastful, blame-shifting, naive-unto-the-point-of-stupidity White Sox rookie first went into print 85 years ago. It's one of the miracles of 20th century fiction -- or a comment on the eternal childishness of America's national pastime -- that the bush leaguer's absurd confidences to a friend back home are still fresh and funny. "I have not worked yet Al and I asked Callahan to-day what was the matter and he says I was waiting for you to get in shape. I says I am in shape now and I notice that when I was pitching in practice this A.M. they did not hit nothing out of the infield. He says That was because you are so spread out that they could not get nothing past you. He says The way you are now you cover more ground than the grand stand. I says Is that so? And he walked away." Yeah, this is clearly the same sport where the portly John Kruk turned aside a question a few years ago about conditioning with the Bartlett's-worthy, "We're not athletes. We're ballplayers."

Lardner does more than get laughs at the expense of his dense protagonist, though. He gives an intimate picture of baseball in its first classic era -- the busher comes face to face with Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker and Walter Johnson with interesting results. But it's not a sentimental depiction of the age: Among those with whom the busher crosses paths is the famously parsimonious and autocratic White Sox owner, Charles Comiskey. The book gives a hint of the resentments that led his players to agree to throw a World Series (as they did a few years after Lardner wrote "You Know Me Al") and illustrates the indentured servitude that all but the best players endured before free agency arrived in the mid-'70s.

"For fun and pleasure" is why seventeen year old Lewis Garrard went west with Ceran St. Vrain's wagon train in 1846. What unfolds is a unique first hand narrative of overland travel along the Sante Fe Trail to Bent's Fort, Colorado and then on to Taos, New Mexico. This book is supposedly the only eye witness account of the trials and hangings of the revolutionaries who attempted to overthrow the newly acquired American occupancy in Taos by murdering Govenor Charles Bent and several others. Garrard's writing is commendable, being such that the reader feels they are right there with him. We read descriptions of how it was to live with, travel and meet trappers, frontiersmen, mountaineers, and Indians (both friendly and hostile), go on buffalo hunts, endure starvation, lack of water, the forces of nature, etc. while in the mountains and deserts of the southwest. Considered an historical masterpiece and rightfully so.

Garrard's book, besides being of particular interest, ties in with others about the west that combine to inform the reader as no other way can. The language used by such a young author is remarkable, but we must recall that usage changes with time. It helps to keep a dictionary handy. The first person account puts the reader not only on the trail, but in Cheyenne teepees and Bent's Fort where so much of the history of the west, and of those who opened it, came together. Susan Magoffin's book (Down the Santa Fe Trail, and into Mexico) is of another trip along the same route six months apart, and lends a womanly and complimentary view to that of Way To Yah. For those who found Garrard's book less than five star value, I say, read the book again. Often when I do this, appreciation of the work is enhanced. The more one reads of Santa Fe and those who traveled it's trail, the greater will become their respect for Lewis who opens to us the eyes of a young man thrilled with his situation, and who expresses himself as honestly as anyone I have had the joy to read. We are fortunate that he lived to weave into the fabric of the west his wonderful tale. Susan Magoffin reveals another side of the "trail" in her book, both of which combine to inform the reader while revealing truths of a time unfortunately past. Fascinating reading and a must for anyone seriously interested in the Santa Fe trade. Susan died at home, age 26. Lewis and she each wrote just one book.

This newsy contemporary recounting of a trip that includes being a guest in Cheyenne lodges, freezing on the Texas plains, witnessing the trials of the murderers of New Mexico Governor Charles Bent, and wonderful conversations with mountain men and French Canadian voyageurs is written by a boy with an enthusiasm for his experience and a good eye and ear. Lots about horses, mules, food and dancing. A lovely book and fine language.