Meanwhile Back at the Ranch (Reading Rainbow)

Customer Reviews:

Caught their attention.......2005-07-31

I read this to a group of first graders and it was a great recall story. We had a good conversation about how the farmer would feel and how his wife was feeling after each event. It was also good for sequencing.... as a group read in a classroom...I can recommend this to kindergarten- grade 2 teachers.

Still making me chuckle.......2002-10-20

I read this story several years ago, and it still makes me laugh when I think about it today. Any book that has such long-lasting ability to make somebody smile is well worth checking out. The last scene, when the rancher brings his wife a box of Crackerjack from the town and then what she finds inside is a perfect ending to a delightful story.

Nice premise, but needs more of a plot.......2000-10-19

A tall tale contrasting what happens to Rancher Hicks and his spouse Elna. Hicks goes to visit his very dull town and neighbors. . . MEANWHILE, back at the ranch, fantastic surprises await Elna (she wins a prize, her dog has puppies, inherits a winning lottery present, rebuilds the entire ranch, etc.). The back-and-forth contrast is amusing, but ultimately this is somewhat of a one-joke book, which may lose its appeal fairly quickly.

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch.......2000-05-08

I love this book! It is a wonderful book of surprises. Even a college class enjoyed listening to it being read. The humor of what happens in the town and what happens at the ranch will be sure to capture the attention of many. Young and Old!

Teaching Suggestions about this book.......2000-02-18

Meanwhile back at the Ranch offers a delightful opportunity for teachers to introduce the concept of parallel story plots. The story is about a rancher who visits a sleepy little town. Back at the ranch his wife is having an exciting time by winning freezers, receiving a winning lotto ticket, becoming a movie star, striking oil, and receiving a visit from the President. The story moves from town to ranch and back again with the transition phrase..."Meanwhile...back at the ___. This can be used in a story line where the students write about the principal or their teacher attending a conference or meeting while back at the school many things are happening. This book provides a springboard for writing that students find irresistable. Middle schoolers and high schoolers find the pattern of the book delightful to follow and often invent extremely humorous situations that happen back at school. For a great writing activity, introduce this book to your class.

O Come Ye Back to Ireland: Our First Year in County Clare

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Irish Paperback
I had to buy all four!
Decent story of western Ireland
It took me back to County Clare
Charming and well written, but ...

O Come Ye Back to Ireland: Our First Year in County Clare
Niall Williams , and Christine Breen
Manufacturer: Soho Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Irish | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0939149222

Book Description

Niall and Christine left their careers in New York City for a simpler, more authentic life in a cottage outside the tiny village of Kilmihil in County Clare.

"Their tale is a delightful romance."-The New York Times Book Review

Customer Reviews:

Irish Paperback.......2007-09-25

This book was interesting as I am married to an Irish woman and we travel to Ireland often. The descriptions of everyday life in Ireland are grand and are usually explained as compared to life in the states. It's not a very humourous book, but worth resding if you long for Ireland.

I had to buy all four!.......2004-09-23

Before I knew it, I was done with this book and on-line ordering all three of Niall Williams' next books. Rather than just another quaint book about "the Irish", this book weaves a funny and entertaining story of two Americans trying to fit-in in rural west Ireland. From learning the customs to waiting to get a party-line phone, there was a smile on every page.

Decent story of western Ireland.......2004-06-05

I am planning a trip to Ireland and always enjoy reading some books set in the place I am visiting. This story of a couple who moves to Ireland definitely gave a feel for the place. Both the material poverty but social richness.

It took me back to County Clare.......2001-12-21

When I traveled to Ireland two years ago and felt like I'd "come home" from the beautiful scenery (I never knew there could be *that* many shades of green) to the friendly people, to the rather mystical appearance of a Dolmen-shaped cloud in the sky just after we had viewed Dolmen in north County Clare, the experience was one I will not only never forget but hope to repeat sometime soon. During this time it was County Clare which spoke to me most of all.

Niall Williams, born in Dublin and Christine Breen, from New York, have left their Manhattan home to move to County Clare and into the cottage where Chris's grandfather was born. The struggles and triumphs of their first year are engagingly told in this wonderful little book. I was able to be transported back to the rural west of Ireland I learned to love in just a few short days.

In leaving their jobs and friends in Manhattan, Niall and Chris took a very big risk. To go to a place with no central heating, a telephone out of the early 20th C., and to one of the wettest summers on record took real courage. They quickly fit right in with their neighbors and by the time they host a New Years Eve party they are definitely one of "them."

If you're an armchair traveler, someone who's visited the Emerald Isle, or just hope to someday, this is a story to cherish. I have also now read their book of travel essays and am awaiting arrival of their other two books which I have recently ordered.

Although I am too old to do what Niall and Chris have done, it's great to live vicariously through them! Well done!

Charming and well written, but ..........2001-10-23

This is a beautifully written book, full of charming stories and vivid descriptions (as one might expect from a writer/artist team), and the story of their bumpy and circuitous settling-in process on a farm in rural Co. Clare is well told. However, I found the book irritating and didn't even finish it. I had expected to like it, as I've traveled in that part of Ireland (I have roots in Co. Mayo) and enjoyed it immensely, so I was surprised by my negative reaction. After some thought, I realized why I felt that way: the authors came to Co. Clare with clearly defined expectations about why they were going there and what their life there would be like. So, from Day One, they were continually measuring the reality against those (understandably optimistic) expectations and finding it wanting. As a veteran of many moves, including a trans-Atlantic one, I feel that this is the completely wrong approach to starting life in a new place. If you come with an open mind, take the place and the people on their own terms, and learn how to find what you want within those parameters, you'll enjoy your new life much more. (And, often, you'll find that the place has pleasant surprises you didn't even know to look for until you'd been there a while.) The book is still worth reading for the descriptions, but an expatriates' guide it's definitely not.

Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn: The Connected Farm Buildings of New England -- 20th Anniversary Edition

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New England Farm Architecture
Big house, Little House, Back House Barn
Enthralling rural history.
Powerful debunker of Maine myth!
when lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed

Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn: The Connected Farm Buildings of New England -- 20th Anniversary Edition
Thomas C. Hubka
Manufacturer: UPNE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

General | Home Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1584653728

Book Description

"Big house, little house, back house, barn"--this rhythmic cadence was sung by nineteenth-century children as they played. It also portrays the four essential components of the farms where many of them lived. The stately and beautiful connected farm buildings made by nineteenth-century New Englanders stand today as a living expression of a rural culture, offering insights into the people who made them and their agricultural way of life.

A visual delight as well as an engaging tribute to our nineteenth-century forebears, this book has become one of the standard works on regional farmsteads in America.

Customer Reviews:

New England Farm Architecture.......2006-08-26

The author gives the "how and why the connected farm emerged in the mid-to-late 19th century and the story these buildings tell about the common New England farm and the people who made them."
Hubka has written extensively about traditional American buildings and architectural design methods and teaches at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
I love the old pictures like the one showing a family and horses in front of a Saco house and barn.
"According to Hubka, the primary reason for connected farms was agrarian reform, which was spurred in the 1840s and '50s by competition from new, larger farms in the Midwest. Connected buildings allowed New Englanders to take on home-based industry, such as candle- and cheese-making, while continuing to farm and still have everything centralized. Fashion also played a part: Connected farms became the latest thing, and keeping up with the neighbors was important even then." (This Old House)
"An important pioneering effort. The book commemorates both an unique indigenous architectural expression and a way of life that has become extinct . . . The style is economic and clear and Hubka's affection for architecture binds the buildings to their people and their times." -- Maine Sunday Times

Big house, Little House, Back House Barn.......2006-03-14

Very imformative. The images of the older New England homes are very interesting and useful.

Enthralling rural history........2004-11-18

Lets get this straight, this is NOT a coffee table book - if you want lots of colour pictures of old farms and barns - look elsewhere. What it is though, is a well written, brilliantly researched and documented assessment of a largely by-gone way of life in rural New England. Look - I'm even British and I loved (OK - I do have an interest in New England and architecture)

If you are vaguely interested in old rural life, agriculture, history and social history, or vernacular architecture (or any combination of these) - buy it you won't be disappointed.

Powerful debunker of Maine myth!.......2001-03-19

If you have ever wandered around Maine, you will have noticed a unique form of farm architecture. But ask most people why 19th century Maine farmers made such a concerted effort to physically connect the structures on their farms and the answer is "they needed a way to get to the barn through the winter snow." Trust me, I have gone around and asked current dwellers of Maine farmsteads. Thomas Hubka carefully points out that if that were so, we'd see similar connected farm architecture in parts of the nation where winters were even more inclimate and snowier. Yet Maine farm architecture remains almost totally enigmatic. Hubka's diligent field work reveals that forces were at work in mid-19th century Maine that conspired against the rural farmer: industrial competition for hand-manufactured goods produced at home for cash suppliment, a labor drain to other more prosperous farming regions, and unyielding land. The brilliance of Hubka's work is that he evokes how, despite all this, Maine farmers strove to adapt by creating resilliant islands of industry with the structure of their homes that defiantly sheltered year-round dooryard work efforts from wind and snow, but also change abroad. This book is also a perfect source of pithy detail and illustration regarding 17th century cape-style house architecture which, it turns out, is still ubiquitous in New England. Highly recommended, a stiking work.

when lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed.......2001-01-25

There's a type of farm layout that you see in New England that you don't see elsewhere in the US. This book is a study of that type of farm, its whys and wherefores, and how it fit into people's lives -- or better, how their lives fit into it.

This book is written very clearly, with numerous graceful diagrams of floor plans, layouts, and photos of representative farms. The author has a deep sympathy for the ordinary farmers and their taxing occupation, as can be seen in the choice of photos (farmhouse buried in snow, barn on fire, farm family sitting in a front yard still dominated by those granite cobbles you expect to be piled into fences). Diagrams tell the demographic story of why these farms were created, why they belong to northern New England; how they were achieved and how people spent their lives in them.

For me, the magic comes in because I fell in love with one of these farms, and its sunny Lincoln-era dooryard. It has a subtle rightness because of its orientation, its site on a knoll, and a certain flexibility of layout. But even if you don't have such a reference point, I think you will be impressed at the perceptiveness of the work, if you can muster any interest at all in the topic.

Book Description

Even though eight-year-old Ernestine lives with her family up North, "back home" is Lumberton, North Carolina, the place where she was born and where her mama grew up. From the moment she steps off the train, Ernestine feels right at home in the lush, green countryside, working on the family farm, and spending time with her aunt, uncle, and cousins. This nostalgic, sweetly humorous visit home--based on Gloria Pinkney's own childhood memories--is perfect for intergenerational sharing.

"A summer vacation turns into a warm and joyous lesson in family history when young Ernestine visits her relatives. . .[This is] some of Jerry Pinkney's finest work."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

The Huckabuck Family: and How They Raised Popcorn in Nebraska and Quit and Came Back

Average customer rating:

Great Classic Story Style
A new favorite!
One of the best!
An American Fairy Tale
Small's whimsical pictures are perfectly suited to Sandburg

The Huckabuck Family: and How They Raised Popcorn in Nebraska and Quit and Came Back
Carl Sandburg
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Humorous | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0374434492
Release Date: 2004-08-26

Book Description

A picture-book version of the classic Rootabaga story.

Carl Sandburg's Rootabaga Stories have amused generations of children with their distinctly American fairy-tale flavor. In The Huckabuck family, which was from his first collection, Jonas Jonas, Mama Mama, and Pony Pony Huckabuck must pull up stakes when a fire starts and their enormous popcorn harvest pops them out of house and farm. After traveling to towns all over the country, where Jonas Jonas tries out very different occupations, the family finally receives a portent that it's time to go home. This time they won't be farming popcorn, however. David Small's golden rendition of this strange and funny tale, with its delicious textual repetition, will be a happy introduction to Sandburg for many children.

Customer Reviews:

Great Classic Story Style.......2006-11-05

This story shows a little of what it was like decades ago in the heartland. Great artwork too.

A new favorite!.......2005-11-22

I grew up a voracious reader and somehow, I missed this gem of a book! We checked it out from the library and now must have it. Sandburg's writing is reminiscent of Dr. Suess in novel word usage and syntax and the story telling reminds me of NPR's A Prairie Home Companion. A great tall tale that enthralled my 6 year old twins and 4 year old and that I enjoyed reading WAY too much! Add to your collection!

One of the best!.......2005-10-14

When my mom read this book to my sister and me, it had already entertained young readers for about 50 years. How lucky were we that this story had been preserved for the purpose of delighting us to the very core of our young beings? The idea of a popcorn farm catching fire was thoroughly thought provoking for an already thought-filled pre-schooler.

When I recently purchased it for my own little girls, I must admit that I suffered a major disappointment. You see, the Huckabuck family has a pony faced daughter named, "Pony Pony Huckabuck." Unbeknownst to me (and in my honor) every single time that my mom read this book, that daughter became "Joanie Joanie Huckabuck." Now, I can't decide if I should be upset that Sandburg didn't really name one of his main characters for me, or that my mom re-named the "PONY FACED" child after me.

In any case, I highly recommend this book to any parent who would like to share a very interesting story, told with interesting language, with their children.

An American Fairy Tale.......2000-06-01

Carl Sandburg's Huckabuck Family will delight and charm children of every age with a story of family pride and optimism. When the Huckabucks Nebraska barn burns down and all their popcorn pops, they decide to go on the road and wait for a sign to tell them when to come back home. Each year they move to a new town and Papa finds a new job. The Huckabucks may have good luck, or bad, but they always have each other. David Small's illustrations add just the right touch to the story and are so detailed that even the farm animals have facial expressions. So, sit down and take a trip across the country and back with the Huckabucks. I promise, you won't be disappointed. This is a wonderful book the whole family can share.

Small's whimsical pictures are perfectly suited to Sandburg.......1999-11-08

This book is a satisfying follow-up to David Small's last twobooks, The Gardener & The Library. Though this is an old story its optimistic message suits Small's whimsical style beautifully. I'm thoroughly confused by the review in Kirkus that criticizes the repetitive nature of the names--this is part of Sandburg's poetic form--as well as the "pointless" nature of the Huckabuck family's travels, which is actually the whole point of the story. One must take a change in luck in stride, go out and find one's new fortune, and you may even find yourself back home having learned a thing or two. Cheers (& 5 stars) to the Huckabucks, Sandburg, and David Small.

Average customer rating:

From the Land and Back
Curtis K. Stadtfeld
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0684136910

Average customer rating:

Looking Back (Butter in the Well)
Linda K. Hubalek
Manufacturer: Butterfield Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1886652031

Average customer rating:

On a Pig's Back: Life on a Small Farm
John Holgate
Manufacturer: Pan Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0330257811

Average customer rating:

Come Back to the Farm
Jesse Stuart
Manufacturer: Jesse Stuart Foundation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0945084943

Book Description

Come Back to the Farm is a collection of sixteen stories which reflect Appalachia at its essence; most often they are gentle in tone, but they portray the pioneer spirit, the self-reliance, and the humor of the hill people of Stuart's Kentucky homeland.

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Coming Back to the Body: Poems
Joyce Sutphen
Manufacturer: Holy Cow Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Naming the Stars

ASIN: 0930100980

Book Description

"Scenes of the family farm, Paris, London, a dying marriage, stories of plain exaltation and ordinary weariness, seen with a clear and compassionate eye-it eases your heart to read Joyce Sutphen."-Garrisonn Keillor

"Keenly attentive, quietly ruthless-Coming Back to the Body is a work of hard groundings, rocky losses, cherished recoveries. This deeply rooted American book homesteads memories, harvests the present, and radiates a rare heart knowledge."-Edward Hirsch

"Joyce Sutphen is a modern metaphysical poet. The elegance and originality of her wit recall Marvell, Donne, Shakespeare, through her subjects-memory, love, family, death-are timeless. Her poems are like still lifes that refuse to be still. One is charmed. One is hypnotized. The poems in Coming Back to the Body are so various that whatever we seek we will find: consolation, enlightenment, undiluted delight."-Connie Wanek

Photosynthesis

Morning falls out of its orbit
and swims up through the blue.
Last night, when I heard the news,
I forgot my human hunger.

Now I am making calculations
with a row of ivy and old hibiscus.
I am silent as a shadow in the ferns,
I am frond green and curled.

It may be necessary to drink through
the roots; I could eat sunlight and air,
start a green factory in each finger;
I could make each arm a branch.

Let me begin as stem and leaf.
I'll make something you can breathe.

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