Pintsized Pioneers (Lone Star Book Blog Tour)

 

PINTSIZED PIONEERS:

Taming the Frontier, 

One Chore at a Time

By Preston Lewis & Harriet Kocher Lewis

Young Adult / Nonfiction / History

Publisher: Bariso Press

Pages: 184

Publication Date: September 24, 2024

SYNOPSIS

Children tread lightly through the pages of Old West history. Pintsized Pioneers: Taming the Frontier, One Chore at a Time gives frontier children their due for all the work they did to help their families survive. Even at early ages, the youngsters helped families make ends meet and handled chores that today seem unbelievable. Written for today’s young adults, Pintsized Pioneers offers lessons on frontier history and on the value of work for contemporary youth.


In 1850 adolescents 16 and under accounted for 46 percent of the national population, making them an important labor force in settling the country. Pintsized Pioneers examines their tasks and toils starting with the chores on the trail west. Children assisted in providing fuel and water on the trail and at home when they settled down. In their new locations the young ones helped grow food, make clothing for the entire family and assist with the housekeeping in primitive dwellings.

These pintsized pioneers took on farm and ranch chores as young as six, some going on cattle drives at eight years of age. Even Old West town tykes, who enjoyed more career possibilities, helped their folks survive as well. In the end, many pintsized pioneers pitched in to help their families make ends meet. Difficult as their lives might have been, the lessons those children learned handling chores helped them and their country in the years ahead. Those pintsized lessons have contemporary applications to the youth of today.

Targeted at young adults, Pintsized Pioneers is written at a ninth-grade reading level and includes a supplementary glossary. Even so, Pintsized Pioneers is an eye-opener for adult readers as well.

CLICK TO PURCHASE 

Bariso Press | Amazon | B&N | Bookshop.org | Books-A-Million

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Preston Lewis and Harriet Kocher Lewis co-authored three books in the "Magic Machine Series" published by Bariso Press: Devotionals from a Soulless Machine, Jokes from a Humorless Machine, and Recipes from a Tasteless Machine. They reside in San Angelo, Texas.

Preston Lewis has published more than 50 fiction and nonfiction works. The author and historian’s books include traditional Westerns, historical novels, comic Westerns, young adult books, and historical accounts. In 2021 he was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters for his literary accomplishments.

His writing honors include two Spur Awards from Western Writers of America and three Elmer Kelton Awards from the West Texas Historical Association. He has received ten Will Rogers Medallion Awards, and in 2024, he earned an inaugural Literary Global Independent Author Award in the Western Nonfiction category for Cat Tales of the Old West.

He is a past president of Western Writers of America and the West Texas Historical Association, which named him a fellow in 2016.

WEBSITE ◆ LINKEDIN ◆ INSTAGRAM ◆ X/TWITTER 

AMAZON ◆ FACEBOOK ◆ GOODREADS

Harriet Kocher Lewis is the award-winning editor and publisher of Bariso Press. Titles she has edited have been honored with Will Rogers Medallion Awards, Spur Finalist designations, and Independent Author Awards.

Lewis concluded her 26-year physical therapy career as the inaugural clinical coordinator for the physical therapy program at Angelo State University, where she taught technical writing and wrote or edited numerous scientific papers as well as a chapter in a clinical education textbook.

WEBSITE ◆ FACEBOOK

REVIEW

Are you familiar with the game The Oregon Trail? It was a super beloved PC game, that I didn't have the opportunity to play...but this book and that game definitely have a lot in common. Both are insights into an older, tougher time and are intended to teach young readers about history in an engaging way. As I read this book, I frequently found myself thinking about that game and how iconic it is, because this book tackles tough topics readily without going overboard. 

I really appreciated the way that the struggles of pioneers were presented. It was very effective, informative, and it never got too heavy even though the subject has all the potential to do so. I love reading assorted history books and finding out more about the past, so this book was right up my alley. I especially love reading history and non-fiction books that are written for children because they're always so digestible. They're approachable, they get to the point, and they have to be efficient in delivering information due to differing attention spans and development levels. 

All in all, Pintsized Pioneers is a highly formative and interesting read that I definitely recommend. It's a great teaching aid and I'd love to see even more history books like it. When I was young I would read books like the Dear America and American Girl series, or others similar to them. In recent years I've dived heavily into the Magic Tree House series. This is a great addition to my collection of history texts that I'm very excited to have and skim through every now and again. I give Pintsized Pioneers a Lone Star rating of ✯✯✯✯ stars. 

CLICK TO VISIT THE LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE TOUR PAGE

FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH BLOG PARTICIPATING IN THIS TOUR.

blog tour services provided by