Little Blog on the Prarie

 

Title: Little blog on the prairie  by: Cathleen Davitt Bell.

Publisher: Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers, 2010

ISBN-13: 978-1-59990-286-9          

Interest Level: YA

Book Summary:

This realistic- fiction will have readers ROFL (rolling on floor laughing). Young-teen Gen faces an entire summer with just her family on a remote farm with no modern necessities. However, she soon learns this is more than just no TV and iPods; Gen will have to actually work her summer away. Her mother's so-called idea of a "family vacation" places Gen in a society living a strictly 1890's lifestyle complete with outhouses, milking cows, corn fields, and rude know-it-all leaders. Gen's only solace is her hidden contraband cell-phone. Thinking she is just "texting" friends back home, Gen soon realized that sending information into cyberspace can have some serious repercussions. 

My thoughts:

To blog or not to blog, that is the question! Those of us who were raised on a farm know that growing up loving to read about Laura Ingalls and living her lifestyle are two very different things.  I could not stop smiling the entire way through this book. It truly touches on the heart of what it would be like to give up all that we have today and live in the 1890's.  Readers will relate to the trials of first crushes, family troubles, and missing friends when isolated. Little blog on the Prairie has some amazing themes on the importance of community unity, informational research, using technology wisely,  and good old fashioned hard work!

Library Tool Box of Tips and Tricks:

Information Literacy: 

This is the perfect book to introducing online privacy, social networking, and discriminatory research!  Students often do not understand that once something is put into cyberspace you lose a large amount of privacy. This could be used in any middle school/high school to enhance information literacy on blogging and texting. 

Library Blog on the Prairie:

Have students create a library blog on areas addressed in the book and compare to modern living. Ideas: Clothing styles, cow/chicken use and care, cooking, tree care/usage, harvesting, irrigation, communication, safety, preparedness, law, architecture, family units, community gatherings, leadership positions and responsibilities etc.

References: 

Image: Little Blog on the Prairie [book cover].  Retrieved from: 

     http://www.titlewave.com/cover?FLR=29850UX&

     SID=e4a2aea9c0a15bb1eb6903fcb9ce2289&type=cover  

  

[Review of the book Little Blog on the Prairie, by C. Davitt Bell (2010, April 19).       Publishers Weekly, 257(16), 54.

  

Weisman, K. [Review of the book Little Blog on the Prairie, by C. Davitt Bell 

     (2010, April 1). Booklist, 106(15), 39.