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Synopsis
‘A child comes to terms with the fact that she and her family are leaving the prairie. . . . As she talks herself into acceptance, her Mama helps her let go, commenting that the baby will need someone to tell him where he came from. So the girl gathers mementoes—a bag of earth and a piece of cottonwood tree. . . .A novel hides in these few pages. As with Sarah, Plain and Tall, the subext vibrates. So much is told in each perfectly chosen phrase. The story is deep and specific, but the pain and denial of a child leaving a known and loved place is all too universal. Moser’s finely-wrought engravings, enhanced by moody tints, record the departure.’—SLJ.
1995 "Pick of the Lists" (ABA)
Children's Literature
Moving is so hard, and the child mourns not only (though mostly) for herself but also for the baby, who won't ever know the joys of the prairie after the family sells the farm and relocates. "What you know first stays with you," Papa says. So she strains her brain to record and remember and transmit everything, from the softness of the cows' ears to the beloved cottonwood tree to her uncle's cowboy songs. Touching and nostalgic, in free verse, with starkly sorrowful etchings in pale tones of the revolving seasons.