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In Times Past
an eBook on CD
by Carol Hurst and Rebecca Otis

Integrating US History with Literature in Grades 3-8.

Enliven your US History curriculum!

Teach US History using great kids books.

More Info

Prairie Visions

by Conrad, Pam. (HarperCollins, 1991 ISBN 0 06 021373 6) Nonfiction. 85 pages. Grades 3+.
This book was reviewed by Carol Otis Hurst in Teaching K-8 Magazine.

Review

This is the life of Solomon Butcher, an itinerate photographer on the plains of Nebraska at the turn of the century. Butcher appears as a minor character in Conrad's novel Prairie Songs. Not only are the facts of his life interesting, the photographs he took give us a close look at the settlers and the kinds of dwellings they built.

Related Areas of Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site

• Prairie Songs by Pam Conrad.
• Keeper of the Doves by Betsy Byars. Also set at the Turn of the Century. Featured book with activities, related books and links.
• Stotts, Stuart. Books in a Box: Lutie Stearns and the Traveling Libraries of Wisconsin (Big Valley Press, 2005 ISBN 0976537206. Order Info.
  This is a quiet, fictionalized biography about the work of Lutie Stearns. Around the turn of the century she traveled throughout Wisconsin providing boxed sets of books which circulated from town to town. Funded by state taxes these were the first free libraries for many communities. This is a good nonfiction companion to novels and picture books set in the time period.
• Keeper of the Doves by Betsy Byars. Also set at the Turn of the Century. Featured Book with activities, related books and links.

Related Web Sites

• Discovery Channel's Activies and Resources on Prairies:
  http://school.discovery.com/lessonplans/programs/prairie/