Great Plains
A Bibliography
by A. Waller Hastings 

Children’s books about the Great Plains tend to focus on one of three great themes: the historic experience of life in this vast region, including pioneer days and the Dust Bowl; the lives and legends of the Native peoples who occupied the area before the arrival of the white man, and who continue to live there today; and the rhythms of rural and small-town life in the present and recent past.  This bibliography attempts to sample books on all three themes. 

FOR YOUNG READERS
 
Haystack by Bonnie Geisert
Illustrated by Arthur Geisert
Houghton Mifflin, 1995, 0-395-69722-0
Brief sentences and softly colored etchings show the construction and use of a haystack “[i]n a time not so long ago, before machines made hay in convenient bundles.”  It begins with the grass growing tall in the spring, follows through the harvest, raking, and piling of the hay into an enormous haystack, then shows the stack used to feed and shelter livestock before returning to the grass growing “tall in preparation for the cycle to begin again.”   

If You’re Not from the Prairie. . .  by David Bouchard
Illustrated by Henry Ripplinger
Aladdin, 1995, 0-689-82035-6
Luminous, detailed acrylic paintings show life on the Canadian Great Plains at all seasons of the year in this beautiful picture book.  The illustrations adeptly capture the peculiar quality of light on the northern plains; in most, human figures are subordinated to the landscape – appropriate to the book’s theme.  The text is not up to the quality of the pictures, occasionally edging toward poetry, but falling flat more often than it should.

Iktomi and the Coyote by Paul Goble
Orchard, 1998, 0-531-30108-7
Goble’s artistic technique, which incorporates elements of Native American painting (flat figures, absence of perspective), is well suited to this user-friendly adaptation of Lakota legend about Iktomi, the trickster. Written with an eye to oral storytelling, the book intersperses (in a different type face) comments and questions for the audience among the narrative. This is one in a series of Iktomi tales by Goble, including Iktomi and the Boulder, Iktomi Loses His Eyes, and Iktomi and the Ducks.

A Prairie Alphabet by Jo Bannatyne-Cugnet
Illustrated by Yvette Moore
Tundra Books, 1992, 0-88776-323-5
A series of paintings emphasize the vastness and flatness of the Great Plains while introducing various words, some closely associated with prairie life and others more generic.  End notes fill in details for those who wish to know more, augmenting the sketchy textual references.  Promotional material called it “an alphabet book for children and an art book for adults,” which seems an accurate appraisal of its appeal.  

The Prairie Fire by Marilynn Reynolds
Illustrated by Don Kilby
Orca Books, 1999, 1-551-43175-0
Set in the homesteading period, The Prairie Fire presents a young boy, Percy, who is deemed too small to help with the grueling labor of the farm – until he helps save the homestead when a grass fire threatens to sweep everything before it. Colored pencil drawings expressively show the emotional impact of events on the faces of Percy and his family and give a sense of the vastness of the prairie and the wash of light over the fields.

Prairie Summer by Nancy Hundal
Illustrated by Brian Deines
Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1999, 1-55041-403-8
Through soft, almost impressionistic oil paintings and poetic text, the author-illustrator team tells a nostalgic tale of two city children visiting their grandmother’s farm for the summer.  Although the time of the story is not stated, both text and illustrations suggest a setting in the (not-so-distant) past, continuing a trend for children’s books to view Great Plains life through a historical rather than a contemporary lens.  

Prairie Town by Bonnie and Arthur Geisert
Houghton Mifflin, 1998, 0-395-85907-7
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, while encouraging reading several individual stories out of the pictures’ details.  A simple text helps to direct the reader’s attention to some of those details. 

River Friendly, River Wild by Jane Kurtz
Illustrated by Neil Brennan
Simon & Schuster, 2000, 0-689-82049-6
Rivers on the Great Plains are particularly prone to flooding because of the relatively flat landscape and shallow riverbeds.  In a series of evocative, intensely personal poems and soft-focus oil paintings, Kurtz and Brennan describe the Grand Forks (ND) flood of 1997 and the complicated relationship between Plains residents and their rivers. 

Storm Maker’s Tipi by Paul Goble
Atheneum, 2001, 0-689-84137-X
A visually exciting retelling of a Blackfoot legend of the origin of the tipi, this book combines practical knowledge of Plains Indian life, conveyed through schematic diagrams, with a legend about the natural dangers of Plains weather, illustrated with dramatic images of the inside of Storm Maker’s tipi and of the plains covered with buffalo, rendered in Goble’s typical style through a variety of perspectives. 

A Tallgrass Prairie Alphabet by Claudia McGehee
University of Iowa Press, 2004, 0-87745-897-9
A striking series of watercolor illustrations on scratchboard, each accompanied by a one-word identifier, provides a glimpse of the unique animal and plant life on the prairies.  The simple pictures will delight young children while end notes will give parents and older readers more information about the natural history of the region.

 FOR OLDER READERS 

Buffalo Before Breakfast by Mary Pope Osborne
Random House, 1999, 0-679-89064-5
This entry in the time-traveling Magic Tree House series takes its young heroes to a Lakota village in the early 1800s, where they learn about the historical culture of the Plains Indians and the importance of the buffalo. The historical material is fairly accurate, given the second-grade reading level of the novel, but scenes of children interacting with buffalo might mislead readers as to the danger of these animals.

Daily Life in a Plains Indian Village, 1868 by Michael Bad Hand Terry
Clarion Books, 1999, 0-395-97499-2
This profusely illustrated nonfiction book for upper elementary readers presents concise details about all elements of life among the Northern Cheyenne, as well as summaries of other major Plains tribes.  Illustrations include photographs of actual artifacts and staged scenes of Indian life, and supplementary material at the back provides further information and directions about where to find out more: an outstanding selection. 

Indians of the Great Plains: Traditions, History, Legends, and Life by Lisa Sita
Gareth Stevens, 1997, 0-762-40073-0
Part of a series on the Native Americas, this heavily illustrated chapter book gives an overview of the natural domain of the Great Plains and the traditional life styles of generic Plains Indians, centering on the buffalo hunt, the horse culture, and community styles. The book differentiates between settled, agricultural groups like the Wichita or the Mandan and nomadic groups like the Sioux that used teepees, but does not provide detailed treatment of any particular tribe.

One Day in the Prairie by Jean Craighead George
HarperTrophy, 1996, 0-064-42039-6
Newbery Award winner George profiles the animal and plant life of the Oklahoma prairie through a simple narrative about a boy photographing wildlife and a tornado that threatens all of them.  The story carries the reader along through a chapter book primarily designed to explore the interconnections of natural prairie life.

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse 
Scholastic Press, 1997 (1998 Newbery Award), 0-590-36080-9
Hesse’s  free-verse poems depict one of the most traumatic periods in Plains history through the story of an Oklahoma farm girl, Billie Jo. Against the backdrop of the Dust Bowl, her family struggles to wrest a living from the dry plains, a task compounded when her mother and newborn brother die tragically, leaving the survivors to come to terms with the past and each other.

A Pioneer Farm Girl: The Diary of Sarah Gillespie 1877-1878 by Sarah Gillespie
Edited by Suzanne L. Bunkers with Ann Hodgson
Blue Earth Books, 2000, 0-736-80347-5
One in a series of real-life diaries intended to offset the popular fictional “diary” series of historical fiction, this mid-grade book combines excerpts from a diary kept by a 12-year-old Iowa girl with informative sidebars about everything from how to make johnnycakes to the one-room schoolhouse and the county fair. Illustrated with photographs of the actual places and people mentioned as well as other historical photos, this book presents the real thing that others only pretend to offer.

Prairie Summer by Bonnie Geisert
Illustrated by Arthur Geisert
Houghton Mifflin, 2002, 0-618-21293-0
Based on the author’s memories of growing up near Cresbard, South Dakota in the early 1950s, Prairie Summer captures the rhythms of farm life within the story of 10-year-old Rachel, who struggles to gain her father’s approval. She constantly falls short until the arrival of her baby brother: when no one else is around to help she is provoked to heroic action.

Stories from Where We Live – The Great North American Prairie
edited by Sara St. Antoine
Milkweed, 2001, 1-571-31630-2
This collection of stories (both fiction and memoirs), essays and poems is an excellent introduction to prairie life for mid-grade readers, offering perspectives from Native Americans and whites, early settlers and contemporary Plains dwellers; the well-known and the less famous.   

The Trickster and the Troll by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve
University of Nebraska Press, 1997, 0-803-29263-5
Sneve, a Lakota (Sioux) married to a Norwegian, presents an unusual take on the historical settlement of the northern Great Plains through the eyes of mythical figures from two of the cultures that contributed to that history: the Lakota trickster Iktomi and a Norse troll. Perplexed by the changes that overcome their land, the two characters establish an occasional friendship, allowing the reader to see unexpected bonds between the ethnic groups and to simultaneously view the landscape of the Plains as a familiar home (Iktomi) as well as a strange and frightening place (the troll).

When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt
Henry Holt/Dell Yearling, 1999, 0-440-22904-9
Like many Plains towns, Antler has nothing much going on most of the time, so the arrival of a trailer advertising Zachary Beaver, “the fattest boy in the world,” provides some entertainment at least.  When his companion takes off, the Texas townsfolk must find a way to integrate Zachary into their lives against the backdrop of social disintegration during the Viet Nam war. 

CLASSICS

Addie Across the Prairie by Laurie Lawlor
Illustrated by Gail Owens
Whitman Publishing, 1986; Aladdin, 1991 0-671-70147-9
Part of a historical series on the settlement of the Dakota Territory, this mid-grade novel touches on many common concerns of pioneer narratives. Addie, initially fearful, discovers new friends and sources of strength as she must cope with visiting Indians – who turn out only to be hungry, not angry – and a horrific prairie wildfire. Other books in this series are Addie’s Dakota Winter and Addie’s Long Summer.

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
HarperTrophy, 1953 (Originally published 1935), 0-06-440002-6
Probably the best known of all children’s books about the Great Plains, this is the story of the Ingalls family’s first foray into prairie living in Indian Territory.  Wilder’s story, and subsequent books in the series describing life in Minnesota and South Dakota, set the pattern for many later novels about prairie pioneers.

Prairie Songs by Pam Conrad
HarperTrophy, 1993 (Originally published 1985), 0-06-440206-1
Another story about prairie pioneers, this time in Nebraska, Conrad’s novel is particularly notable for depicting a character who does not become accustomed to the strange new life on the prairie.  When it was first published, the novel won numerous awards and was highly praised for its beautiful writing and strong characterization.  

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
HarperCollins, 1985 (1986 Newbery Award), 0-06-440205-3
MacLachlan’s spare prose beautifully tells the story of a family adjusting to a new mother – a common experience among early pioneers on the prairie, where harsh conditions made for high mortality.  Told from the perspective of the widower’s young daughter, the novel shows the stepmother adjusting to the contrast between the stark prairie and her beloved Maine home, while sympathetically addressing the universal difficulties of the step-family adjustments.   

A. Waller Hastings is professor of English at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota.  In addition to children's literature scholarship, he writes poetry, usually about the landscapes of the Great Plains.