Prairie Town by Illustrated by Arthur Geisert; By (Author) Bonnie Geisert
	List Price:   $16.00 Unit Price:   $12.80 You Save:   $3.20 (20%) ISBN-10:   0395859077 ISBN-13:   9780395859070 Publisher:   Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Houghton Mifflin Books for Children Series:   Small Town U. S. A. Ser. Category:   Agriculture Pub. Date:   March 1998 Pages:   32 Format:   Hardcover; Reinforced binding Ages:   5 to 8 Grades:   0 to 3
Subjects
CITIES AND TOWNS_JUVENILE LITERATURE COUNTRY LIFE MIDDLE WEST PRAIRIES SEASONS_JUVENILE LITERATURE
Description/Notes
Describes a year in the life of a prairie town including the effect of seasons and of economics on the ebb and flow of this agricultural community. Prairie town explores the everyday life of the kind of town that grew up when the railroads crossed America. A wedding, graffiti on the water tower and a runaway cow on sale day are some of the events. Brief text & detailed etchings colored with washes cover a year in the life of a small Midwestern town. Specific events & sites are illustrated as well as panoramic views of the entire town. During the early 1900s, railroad companies laid tracks across America's open land. In fields of grass beside the new tracks prairie towns grew. The towns prospered amid the golden wheat fields, and grain elevators dominated the skyline. Bonnie Geisert's clear text explores the social and economic life of one of these towns, while the dramas of everyday life can be experienced in Arthur Geisert's panoramic hand-colored etchings. Here is a fascinating view of life in a thriving midwestern town, told with respect and affection for the resilient townspeople, as they work and play, their lives directly affected by the changing seasons. The horizontal orientation of Geisert's etchings, coupled with frequent use of two-page spreads, helps to put the growth and life of a prairie town in clear visual relation to the vastness of the surrounding plains. Young readers will want to return again and again to this bird's-eye view of small town life, as they follow the changing seasons through the year. The Geiserts observe and evoke the pace and rhythms of life in a prairie town with abundant affection.