Excellent children's book from the "Little Red Tractor Book" series. Beautiful illustrations of the country and farm living with a fun story.

We first visited Törbel, over Vispertal, in 1/87, while skiing nearby. Complete Walliser Bergdorf, perhaps once the most beautiful in Europe (terribly ugly new church, though), with farmers wearing red bandanas carrying milk jugs through snow-covered dirt streets and feeding the cows that lived in the stables beneath the log houses.

Years later when we saw 'Lieber Alex' (the original German version) in a bookstore in Augsburg we immediately bought it and read it often to our son Hans, then a few years old. He loved it, and so did we. We returned (with two young sons) to Törbel in 7/95, carrying the book under one arm and looking for scenes that might lead us to Bruno's house. Leaving out the details, which are wonderful, let me just say that this beautifully-written book reflects reality. Bruno really exists and is the last fulltime farmer in Törbel. And the author, who is a fantastic artist, lives with him.

This book not only tells the story of hardships suffered by a ranching family in Wyoming, but of every person who has ever felt an obligation to continue a dying family legacy. The authors use of words is heartfelt at least and soul-touching at best. Oprah, this is definitely one for your book of the month club!

My name is Holly Joy Tammaru. I'm 11 years old. This is the best book of the series! I really enjoyed reading about Kate and her horses Windsong and Breeza. It is really interesting how Kate discovers the mystery about her two horses. After you read the part about the barnfire you just have to find out if Windsong really died or if she escaped.What really surprised me was how Anders turned out to be so nice afterall. Mrs. Johnson you did a great job on this book!It was so exciting that I couldn't put it down. Too bad this is the last book of the series!

The New Mexico Territory of the late 1860's came alive in this well-written book. The story of Ben Logan was engrossing throughout the book. He goes from being a survivor of the Civil War to a ranch owner in the New Mexico Territory with stops as a wagon driver and gold prospector in between. Real characters and events were interwoven with fictional ones in a believable way. The descriptions of the scenery make the reader want to visit the Pecos Wilderness. I had a hard time putting the book down once I started reading it. The Epilogue describes what happened to the real characters and events. I kept looking for descriptions of what happened to Ben and Myra who are fictional characters! I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical or western fiction.

[FROM back of book] ********* A SECOND HEART PULSED BENEATH HERS.... And Elise would do anything to protect her child. Even marry a man she hardly knew. But when she saw the pride in Cole's eyes as he gazed at his own motherless daughter, Elise began to hope that maybe she wasn't as foolish as she'd thought.
Maybe there was a chance to make a home, to give her baby a real family, on Cole's ranch.
Yet the rules were firm. They'd marry, but not share a bed. They'd mingle their lives and their children, but not their hearts. And for a while it worked...until love entered the picture..... ********
This is a near great story of working out the differences and emothions of two strangers who are attracted to one another after marriage.
To make marriage work instead of always thinking there is a way out shows a lot of courage. And you have to love Cole's daughter Haley - she is precious.
There is so much more to this story but I don't want to give it away -- I intend to keep it to read over again -- definitely recommended.

This book is great! I've read it 4 times and recommended to everyone that loves children's books. It brought back childhood memories of the big dust storms we once had. The writing of Virginia Hamilton, as always, is superb. The characters were real to me and the illustration allowed each character to dance through out the story. I loved Lindy's character. I've recommanded the book to others because of it's down to earth discription of how things were. I remember playing in gullies like the one the garden was planted in. Each of us have out childhood memories. We lived in the dry dusty country of West Texas. Thank you for the opprotunity of being able to tell others how much I loved this book. The reason I found this is because I wanted to buy one to show my grandchildren how it was in the dust bowl days.

I thought it was hilarious, but my kids just looked at me funny while I was reading it to them. Extremely educational, in a sort of offbeat way. Great illustrations. I can't believe the price! Your local library has a copy- check it out. That's where mine came from.

Charmingly written by Wisconsin author Jerry Apps, and very nicely illustrated by Annika Beatty-Andersen, Eat Rutabagas is a delightful children's picturebook story about a farmer and his son planting, raising, and harvesting a crop of rutabagas for the market. A simple yet delightful tale of the joy of farming, illustrated in full color with art that fully captures the storybook family's love of the earth's bounty, Eat Rutabagas would make a wonderful addition to any personal, family, school, or community library collection. Also strongly recommended is Stormy (193059609X;$$$), another Jerry Apps and Annika Beatty-Andersen collaboration for young readers.