Gr. 2-5 This brief, clearly organized text introduces readers to homesteading on the Great Plains between the Civil War and World War I. Sharp, full-color and black-and-white photographs vividly expand upon the text and help draw occasional links between the lives of these past settlers and those of Americans in remote communities today. Patent is especially careful to explain the amount and difficulty of the homesteader's work in comparison to the ease with which machines later performed the same tasks. She notes that the political decision to encourage the settlement of the American desert had disastrous consequences for Native Americans. Building a sod house, plowing, sowing and reaping, household chores, schooling, and entertainment are all included. Whether used as a supplement to classroom texts or by students reading and researching on their own, this title deftly depicts a way of life less than a century removed from many of our families.--School Library Journal
