The most moving novel I thought Madeline Baker had written was First Love, Wild Love--until now. Under A Prairie Moon was just as poignant and romantic, if not more, and was definitely a page turner. Mixing in humor, time travel, and honest emotion, I finished the book easily in one night. The end is a tear jerker, knowing that Kathy and Dalton's fate is inevitable, but only for a short time. I can see Madeleine really put her heart and soul into creating Dalton, and I found myself hoping that my own Dalton Crowkiller would somehow appear in my own Montana home. He's the epitome of tall dark and handsome, and still possesses a gentle soul that made me all the more attracted to him. Great book, wonderful character. This Eddie Little Sky must've made quite the impression on Madleine Baker if he was her inspiration for her Indian characters, particularly Dalton. Her attraction for him was more than evident.

This was the best book I have read to date. I loved it! No book has made me feel the emotional ups and downs of the hero or heroine. The way it was written made me feel for both Kathy and Dalton. Madeline Baker really took me from the present back to the old west and back again. It was truly an amazing story, I couldn't put it down. If you want a fantastic read, purchase this book. You will not be disappointed!

THis is book has to be the most captivating story that I have read in quite some time. And I read a lot of romance novels. I COULD NOT put it down. Dalton and Kathy's characters were so very real. Their love was everlasting. Kathy, suffering from depression from the lost of her husband, is not only carried away intrigue of Dalton, but thrown in to a different century with her beloved. This is, by far, Madeline's best Indian romance story so far

I loved the first two books, but this one is the best yet! Virgina has now grown up. At first I was sad that her teen-years adventures were over, but reading about her as an adult has been thrilling. So many things, including an abused child, her own children, a husband, struggles, and her grandmother, happen to her. Through the whole thing she realizes that her relationship with Christ is not what it should be. I think that this book has a great value to it!

I just finished reading this book and could not put it down. As in all of Jeanette Oke's books she makes you feel as if you are a part of the story, and cry and laugh right along with the carracters. I could see a lot of myself in Virginia. It is much easier to give advice about how to let God lead your life then to follow it sometimes. Realizing the difference between romantic love and true sustaining love in a marriage is not always easy. The story was very true to life as always. It is great the way that Jeanette even referred all the way back to the loss Marty suffered in Love Comes Softly of her first husband, while consoling Virginia. She always ties the history of her books together, but they are still understanable if you have not read the previos books!

She did it again! Janette Oke's the bomb...for someone her age! More about Jenny Woods in the book. If you read the first books, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about...

I have read alot of series book and it seems that the sequels never live up to the first. Most authors could have put everything in one book. But not this one. I could not believe that this book was better than the first. It kept moving and there was not a slow part anywhere. Virginia was a bright and mature young girl in The Tender Years. She has blossomed into a bright mature young woman. She is learning that everything has a purpose and God will take care of everything.. I recommend this book highly. It was soo good now I cant wait until #3 comes out. I hope I dont have to wait tooo long......My neice and I are anxiously waiting.. WAY TO GO JANETTE OKE..You have created another masterpiece

This book is wonderful. I have read The Tender Years, and A Searching Heart. I am anxiously waiting another. I recommend to anyone to read and buy this outstanding book series!

I loved this book! It was so easy to relate to Virginia and feel her emotions. This is one of the best books Janette Oke has ever written. I can't wait for the next book in the series.

I first read this book in March 1997 when it first came out. Even after three and a half years, and the reading of many more books, this remains of my favorite books ever. It brings the Oregon Trail to life and puts faces on the countless brave pioneers who braved the hardships of the trail to make new lives in the west. The narrator is a fictional thirteen-year-old farm girl from Missouri, Hattie Campbell. Through her diary, written in a voice that truly sounds as if it belongs to a young girl from that time, the reader experiances the events of Hattie's journey west - her friendship with Pepper, a fourteen-year-old girl from the wagon train, the beginnings of a romance with Pepper's brother Wade, and many others. Hattie was a character that I really came to care about, and I was sad to put the book down when it was finished, but since then, I have read it several more times. Kristiana Gregory is an amazing author that has given a distinct voice to each of her narrators in this book and her two other Dear America books. I hope she writes another Dear America book soon; she's one of my favorite authors from the series. I highly reccomend this book to historical fiction fans.

This adventureous and exciting story is about a young girl named Hattie Campbell, growing up in Missoura in 1847. This story is about the exciting sensation she gets when her father anounces they are traveling west to Oregon. This story is about her triumphs and losses along the Oregon Trail. After she meets a 14 year-old girl named Pepper Lewis, they plan everything about their 'soon-to-be' life in the west. Everything changes when Pepper gets married...Will all of their plans change? Soon, Hattie longs for someone to love, just as Pepper has. Will she survive the long and harsh journey west?

I loved this book! I deffinetly am glad I gave it 5 stars, because it's true! This is a very adventureous book and it makes me wish I lived in that time, for everything is so fun...But it turns out life is harsh on the trail. I recommend this book for 10-14 year-olds. When I bought this book I also bought "My Heart Is On The Ground" and "Voyage On The Great Titanic", all great stories of girls and their changing lives. Once again, I couldn't put it down! I loved it! :)

This book was tragic But adventureous. I felt like I was Hattie. It is about a girl who leaves her hometown in Booneville, Missora and heads out west to Oregon. Their are a lot of deaths in the story but none of Hattie's family members died on the Oergon trail so don't worry. I'm eight and I didn't have nightmares for a week but if I were you I would not let anybody under eight read this. they may get scared. There are great characters like Pepper, Gideon, Wade, Ben, Jake and of course Hattie Campell. If you like adventure and danger I recomend this book to you.

Many fans of Janette Oke have asked her to bring back Clark and Marty Davis and she does so in this series. This series is about their granddaughter Virginia, Belinda's daughter.

Virginia lives on a farm with her husband, Jonathan, and their children. Jonathan works with his brother breeding and raising horses. Lots of changes happen for Virginia in a few short years.

Their daughter, Mindy, was left with them by her mother when she was very young. Mindy knows about her "real" mother because she still has some memories of her. But since she has lived with Virginia and Jonathan she's called them mother and father because they are the only real family she's known.

Mindy hopes her mother will soon come to Christ. She prays for her as often as possible.

Mindy's mother comes for a visit and requests something that Jonathan and Virginia won't agree to.

I really liked this book! I like the Love Comes Softly series better so far but maybe I need to finish this series before I compare them. But I do suggest this series, it does a great job of continuing the story of the Davis Family.

If I could rate this book higher I would!! Janette Oke has long been a favorite author of mine. I have read most all of her books with her "Love Comes Softly" series my all-time favorite. I was thrilled to see her begin a new series with the granddaughter of Clark and Marty. But when I read the first book several years ago, I was less than enthused. Recently I saw this had become "The Praire Legacy" series, so I re-read Book 1 and continued with the series. Once again, these books are heartwarming and should be cherished forever. In "Like Gold Refined" we see Virginia as a young wife and mother coping with life changes ... not always easy. Along with the ups and downs of everyday life comes a bitter and hard-fought custody battle over Mindy, the daughter of Virginia's childhood friend Jenny. Mindy has lived with Virginia and Jonathon since she was a toddler when Jenny leaves her with the young couple. I was gripped by the story and was inspired not only by Virginia's faith through these circumstances but moreso with little Mindy's strong faith to bring her wayward Mama Jenny to the Lord. I experienced so many emotions, from laughing,crying, comfort and anguish. I rejoiced at the conclusion. It is my hope that Janette Oke will continue on with Mindy's story (possibly a new series of books). Thank you for blessing our lives with the story of Clark and Marty and their many offspring.

Like many of Oke's readers, I have followed the saga of the Davis family in the Love Comes Softly Series and now The Prairie Legacy. Like Gold Refined, the conclusion to the Prairie Legacy series, continues the story of the Davis's grandaughter Virginia. In the first three books of the series, readers saw Virginia mature from a flighty teenager to a caring young wife and mother. In Like Gold Refined, Virginia's path to maturity continues as she has to accept the physical changes in her aging grandparents, Clark and Marty Davis. She does not want them to grow old, to leave their farm, or to change anything in their lives. Her mother Belinda has accepted these changes and makes plans to deal with them, but Virginia wants to hang on to the past, keeping everything the same. When Virginia and her husband Jonathon have to suddenly deal with a court battle over their "unofficially adopted" daughter Mindy, Clark and Marty's problems take a back seat to their own setbacks. Over the ensuing months, Virginia and Jonathon travel to the city, leaving their young family, battle with judges and lawyers, and risk losing their livelihood as they go in to debt to pay legal fees. All the while, Virginia tries to maintain a normal household and keep things the same. Finally, it is Mindy who realizes that changes must be made and she makes the decision herself about where to live. After it is all over, Virginia explains to Mindy that some things are meant to change, and that it is all in God's plan. Through her own journey with Mindy and their problems, Virginia finally realizes and accepts that her grandparents are aging and must leave the farm. If not for the trials that Virginia suffered with Mindy, she would not have come to grips with the fact that even her grandparents' lives must change. Oke has done an excellent job with the two storylines, using one to bring about the resolution of the other. She has also come up with a fitting conclusion to the story of Clark and Marty, and has indeed shown the complete transformation of Virginia from a contented, yet carefree, housewife to a sensible young mother whose trials have formed her into a wise Christian woman, much Like Gold Refined.

Where Blue Highways sprawled across the continental United States in a macro-view of America, William Least Heat-Moon reverses the lens and concentrates on (mostly) walking and (sometimes) driving a tiny subsection of the USA: Chase County, in the Flint Hills of eastern Kansas. The people he meets--the old timers who've seen the river rise and fall and mined the quarries, the feminist restauranteur, the female ranchers determined to succeed in the face of declining small-farm agriculture and chauvinism--are people who might make unlikely subjects for straight fiction, but Least Heat-Moon's gift is to make us care about their personal stories and worries anyway. The ecological, social, and political sides of Chase--and the personal issues and flights of fancy of the author's psyche--come into sharp focus under Least Heat-Moon's eye, which misses little; and his writing is clear enough to make you forget that you're reading something fascinating about something commonplace. The kind of book to make you wish the author was just a little more prolific

Having read BLUE HIGHWAYS several years ago I was excited when PRAIRYERTH came out and couldn't wait to read it. Even though itwas a huge book of about a thousand pages, my admiration for William Least Heat Moon was such that I knew I wanted to read this book.

When I began to realize we were never going to leave one county in Kansas I was already near the end of the book and wished that it wouldn't end.

I don't recommend this book to casual readers, for I think they will miss the beauty and fascination contained in these pages. But for those who love poetry and the sheer beauty of words mixed in with simplicity of spirit in story telling, there are few books that can come close to this one. I also have read RIVER HORSE and am hoping that William Least Heat Moon is writing his fourth book as I write these words!

I first picked up this book when a job change brought us into the Tallgrass Prairie region of Kansas. As it turns out, we settled in Cottonwood Falls, Chase County, Kansas! It was extraordinary to read PrairyErth, knowing that we would soon be experiencing this place first-hand.

There is truly nothing like living in this community and experiencing the sights, places and people described so richly in PrairyErth. William Least Heat-Moon knows this place well, and paints a picture that is as vivid and timeless as Chase County itself. As a "local", I've returned to this book time and time again.

Unfortunately, my job is now taking us away from here. If you've read the passage about Spring Street in Cottonwood Falls, then you know our home. This is truly a beautiful and extraordinary place; unique in the world. If you would like to experience the sense of community that my family and I have been so blessed with, give me a call.

This (and Happy Golden Years) is my favorite book of the Little House series. The Ingalls family is doing well; the town has recovered from the Hard Winter; and Laura is changing from a girl into a woman. The descriptions of the characters and the surroundings are vivid and real. I don't care if Rose Wilder Lane wrote most of the books or not - the Little House series is a gift to all readers, not just young readers! I'm in my 30's and I still love to read them periodically, but this is one of my very favorites.

Little Town on the Prairie is my favourite book out of all the "Little House" series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I enjoyed this book more than the other books because it was happier, for there were not so many depressing times the Ingalls family had to endure.
The title is self-explanatory, a little town on the prairie, which is in Dakota, USA. The story is set during the 1880's. The Ingalls family, consisting of six people, was always moving from place to place. When they came to Dakota, they were very happy with it. Their little "shanty" that they stayed in during the summer was built into a new, improved house. Mary, the oldest sister, is accepted into the college of the blind, and Laura continues school and has a summer job. Things are going very well at the Ingalls household. There is enough food for everyone, and there wasn't another hard winter, like everyone expected. Most problems have solutions like when there were gophers eating their corn, they got a cat to kill them. The only problem is school, because of the new teacher, Eliza Jane Wilder. She is Almanzo Wilder's sister. She turns out to be horribly mean to Laura and her younger sister, Carrie, because Nellie Oleson (Laura's enemy mentioned before in "The Banks of Plum Creek") told the teacher negative remarks about Laura. Soon, a new teacher replaces her. All of the problems work themselves out somehow, which is what I like about this book.
In my opinion, Laura Ingalls Wilder does an exquisite job captivating all her readers with her refined choice of words, meticulous detail, and up-beat plot. This is absolutely the best piece she's written. She does an admirable job of describing the setting so it makes you feel like you're right there, witnessing the whole scene. The book also has a good balance of good times and bad times, because if it was all bad times the book would seem depressing, and if it was all good times, the book would seem hard to believe. I would recommend this book for those who enjoy realistic fiction or historical fiction. I think a possible theme for this story would be hold on, things will get better. This theme is displayed throughout all the "Little House" series. This is my all time favourite book, and I hope you enjoy it, too.

Since I've first read this book when I was a little younger than Laura, so I was really excited to read what life was like 'back then' for kids my age.

The hard winter is finally over, and the Ingalls family finally moves out to their claim, where Laura enjoys the outside work and the sunshine. But then she is offered a job as a seamstress in town, and takes it even though she misses the outdoors. The work is hard, and the environment is unpleasant, but Laura sticks it out.

Ma=ry finally has a chance to go to the blind college in Iowa, and while Ma and Pa take her there, Laura, Carrie and Grace clean the house.

School finally begins again, and an unpleasant surprise comes along on the first day - Nellie Oleson from Plum Creek, who schemes and causes trouble. The high point of this situation is the troble between Laura and Ms. Wilder, the teacher, who only hears unpleasant things about Laura from Nellie, and Laura's short temper, especially where Carrie is concerned, does not help the situation... But Ida, the new girl, is nice enough to make up for Nellie's unpleasantness.

Laura is grown up enough to want fashionable cloths and all other fashionable things other girls her age in school have, such as name cards. She is invited to parties and attends her first evening sociable.

We start seeing the relationship between Laura and Almanzo Wilder start developing (even though I think her relationship with his sister, her unpleasant ex - school teacher, might give things an interesting twist).

As someone who enjoyed Oke's Love Comes Softly series and read all the books in it twice, despite their tendency to get a bit less well-developed and padded after the first few titles, I was very interested when the Prairie Legacy books came out. I was glad to see that a break from writing about the Davis family and their children seems to have revived Oke's ability to make up new, detailed incidents in the lives of Marty and Clark's daughter, Belinda, the man she was about to marry at the end of _Love Finds a Home_ and their five children, esp. teenage Virginia. Despite quibbles--like that the story seems to take place in a vacuum, as far as the outside world is concerned (no radio, no mention of the Depression or whatever period the book is supposed to be taking place in), or that Belinda would have been summoned to nursing duties by way of the phone at the time the book occurs, instead of by someone running to her house to tell her about an amergency (someone must have mentioned this to Oke, because they definitely have a phone by the next book), or that Clark and Marty *must* be at least six or eight years older than they are supposed to be in the otherwise wonderful where-are-they-now? prologue--I enjoyed the book and devoured it in one evening. Virginia's friend, Jenny, is very manipulative, but Virginia's conflict between pleasing her parents and satisfying her own ideals on the one hand and wanting to fit in on the other was something that anyone who remembers their growing up will identify with, and Virginia's conflicts after her own conversion, as she desires to see Jenny saved and worries about alienating her or being a horrible Christian example but also wants to avoid moral compromises and gives in to all-too-human emotions, as we all surely do, made the story compelling. I was not one hundred percent content with the way the mystery thread of the book was resolved, but I was pleased enough in other ways that my pleasure outweighed my quibbles, and I wanted to read the next book.

This was a wonderful book about Marty and Clarks grandaughter Virginia and how she struggles to feel accepted by her peers. Its especially hard for Virginia because of her fiery-tempered friend Jenny Woods who always seems to be getting her into trouble. If you liked the Love Comes Softly series you'll love the story of Marty and Clarks grandaughter Virginia. I can't wait to read the rest of the books in the series!

"The Tender Years" is a wonderful book. I read it this past fall, and absolutely loved it! I had already read the Love Comes Softly series and was wondering what had happened to everybody! When I heard Janette Oke was coming out with the Prairie Legacy books, I couldn't believe it! I was very surprised at how young Virginia was (13), but also very happy. I'm a teenager too, so I could relate to alot of things in the book. I loved the way she learned to trust God (as we all need to.) All I can really say is... READ IT!! Thank you, Janette Oke! Happy Reading!!

I recently re-read the entire Little House series. I remember watching the television series as I read the books the first time. I see things differently now, obviously as an adult. The hardships the pioneers endured to live as they wanted. We get upset if the electricity goes off for a few hours. The sheer struggle of life that these books portray touched me. I also admire Laura Ingalls Wilder for her memory. She wrote these books while in her sixties and seventies. I can hardly remember what I did last week. I will encourage my son to read these when he is old enough.

I received my first Laura Ingalls Wilder book when I was nine years old, and went on to receive one each birthday and Christmas until I had the entire series. They transported me to a world few movies, t.v. shows (including the series!) ever went to...and I am still fasinated with this woman's life. I recommend it for all children and soon will start reading it to my three grandchildren, so their hearts and minds can come alive in a time and world they can only visit thru these wonderfull images of the author. This entire series is only rivaled by Louisa May Alcott...and these are easier for a child to read. Please enjoy the wanderings and hopes and dreams of the Ingalls as they moved thru the midwest...it's worth every moment you spend. The illustrations are so perfect...not glamorizing how Laura or the family looked... in a time before makeup and curling irons, when barefoot along the banks of plum creek was the best! ENJOY

As with all the Laura Ingalls Wilder stories, the deep love and rich feeling Laura herself felt and lived jumps comes across as a real, physical thing. I read one of these stories as a child. I remember liking it but I went back and read them recently as a mother. It gave me both a clear, real view of pioneer life. With both the hardships as well as the joys. As through all of the Little House stories, Laura's love and feeling for her family jumps from the pages. I could only wish that all books I read were so true and real.

Wonderful and authentic, a great collection for any Sandburg devotee or any patriotic Chicagoan. I was a little disappointed with the actual quality of the book, binding and covers, but it is not an expensive edition and the collection is priceless. A must read!

In my reading of poetry I have developed a peculiar habit. In the Table Of Contents I pencil in an asterisk before the titles of poems that I especially enjoyed. I find that this helps me to quickly relocate special poems later when I want to re-read them. In my copy of Sandburg's "Chicago Poems" there are many asterisks. I think that one of the things that appeal to me about these particular series of poems is their "urbanity". As the title suggests, these are often poems about "city"... about the "cosmopolis". Sandburg had a way of animating concrete and asphalt, and making us aware of the inner life of things that millions of us urbanites walk past each day. In one of my favorites entitled "Skyscraper" he says "It is the men and women, boys and girls so poured in and out all day that give the building a soul of dreams and thoughts and memories." And it ends beautifully with "By night the skyscraper looms in the smoke and the stars and has a soul." It is as though if any of Sandburg's Chicago Poems were to just remain silent for a moment, we would hear the faint night-time "humming and thrumming" of "a copper wire slung in the air." (cf. his Under A Telephone Pole).

He writes with a solemnity that avoids being morose, which is refreshing. But take note... "you will be thwarted every time, you try to catch a Sandburg rhyme." (they never rhyme). As for metre, his poems are in a free-verse very much reminiscent of Walt Whitman. The perfect poetry to read while feeding the pigeons, or otherwise commuting to and from the park.

A few weeks after September 11 2001, I came across the poem "Skyscraper" by Sandburg by chance in a huge volume of American poetry. In the millions of lines written about that horrible day, I found his words from 70 years ago to be the most moving. Here are some lines from that poem:

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BY day the skyscraper looms in the smoke and sun and has a soul.
Prairie and valley, streets of the city, pour people into it and they mingle among its twenty floors and are poured out again back to the streets, prairies and valleys.
It is the men and women, boys and girls so poured in and out all day that give the building a soul of dreams and thoughts and memories...

Hour by hour the caissons reach down to the rock of the earth and hold the building to a turning planet.
Hour by hour the girders play as ribs and reach out and hold together the stone walls and floors....

Men who sunk the pilings and mixed the mortar are laid in graves where the wind whistles a wild song without words
And so are men who strung the wires and fixed the pipes and tubes and those who saw it rise floor by floor.
Souls of them all are here, even the hod carrier begging at back doors hundreds of miles away and the brick-layer who went to state's prison for shooting another man while drunk...

Ten-dollar-a-week stenographers take letters from corporation officers, lawyers, efficiency engineers, and tons of letters go bundled from the building to all ends of the earth.
Smiles and tears of each office girl go into the soul of the building just the same as the master-men who rule the building.

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I have never studied Sandburg, but it seems to me he shares that same love of humanity and fairness that Walt Whitman was so famous for, along with the ability to craft lines as amazing as "hold the building to a turning planet". His love of his modern city seems like a remnant from another age, but his absolute belief in class equality is as relevant as any 2001 street protest.