by Lois Lenski
First published 1967
Young Delores starts her school year in a one-room prairie schoolhouse where children of all ages learn together under one teacher. She walks across the windswept grassland each morning, carrying her lunch pail and slate board. The older students help teach the younger ones their letters and numbers. Delores struggles with her arithmetic but excels at reading aloud. When winter storms make the journey to school dangerous, families must decide whether to keep their children home or risk the trek through snow drifts. The teacher boards with different families throughout the season, becoming part of each household. Delores watches her older brother prepare to leave school to help with farm work, knowing her own time for learning may be limited. Through harvest celebrations and Christmas programs, she discovers the importance of education and community. The story captures a young girl's determination to learn despite the harsh realities of prairie life.
Genres: family-life, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, found-family
Setting: Prairie
Period: 20th-century
196 pages