If You're Not from the Prairie

by David Bouchard, Henry Ripplinger (Illustrator)

Overview

If You're Not From The Prairie is a poetic tribute that invites readers to experience the blazing light, cutting wind, endless sky, piercing cold, and extraordinary beauty of the prairie.

The Prairie is a land of extremes and, as the lyrical text and illustrations make clear, one that inspires extreme devotion from its hardy inhabitants.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689820359
Publisher:	Aladdin
Publication date:	06/01/1998
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	377,833
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

David Bouchard is an author and former high school principal.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 2-6-Blazing skies in bright blues bounce from the full-page acrylic illustrations that face every page of poetic text in this piece about modern-day life on the prairie. Ripplinger's paintings are done in a realistic style somewhat similar to Andrew Wyeth's. In them, a young boy and his dog play through every season on farmlands, prairie fields, and country roads. He and his friends have a snowball fight in front of a large country house and board the school bus in a winter blizzard. The child walks in a creek bed in solitude and down the road beside his dad. For the most part, the accompanying verse is well written. The dialogue style works well rhythmically and makes for a possible story hour or program read-aloud. Adults would also enjoy this nostalgic piece that ends with the boy a grown farmer: ``You see, my hair's mostly wind,/My eyes filled with grit,/My skin's red or brown,/My lips chapped and split.'' With its attractive format, this will make a nice additional purchase for poetry collections, though in prairie areas it might be a ``must.''-Susannah Price, Boise Public Library, ID

School Library Journal