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240th out of 281 books
—
437 voters
Prairie Evers
A sweet, spirited ten-year-old embarks upon the adventure of first friendship in this sparkling debut
Prairie Evers is finding that socialization isn't all it's cracked up to be. She's been homeschooled by her granny and has learned the most from traipsing through nature. But now she has to attend public school, and feels just like her chickens--cooped up and subject to the...more
Prairie Evers is finding that socialization isn't all it's cracked up to be. She's been homeschooled by her granny and has learned the most from traipsing through nature. But now she has to attend public school, and feels just like her chickens--cooped up and subject to the...more
Hardcover, 228 pages
Published
May 24th 2012
by Nancy Paulsen Books
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A story that details a year of big changes for a girl named Prairie. Moving from North Carolina to New York is a big change, and saying a temporary goodbye to her constant companion, her grandmother, is a heartbreaking change. Starting school is another huge change, especially for a girl who's been homeschooled her entire life. Adjusting to all of the changes is hard, but with supportive parents and a best friend Prairie settles into a new normal. When her friend trusts her with a big secret, Pr...more
This book doesn't tell a story so much as it tells feelings. The best skills that the author uses are in expressing thoughts and emotions and a sense of feelings for each of the characters. This enabled the story to have personalities that were alive with the sense of wonder, or uncertainty or confidence or whatever feelings were called for because of the circumstances. Amazing that this can be done with all the generations in the story. Grammy is such a wonderful characterization and is the piv...more
Bias alert - I know the author and have visited her diner many times. I reading Prairie Evers I feel that I now know her as a young girl as well. I really enjoyed the book. I feel that it presented a good story line as well as characters, problems and dilemmas suitable for the age group for which the book was written. Difficult to really see through the eyes of a pre-teen in my 60's, but I feel I would have enjoyed this book as a youngster. My criticisms are twofold. First, the book might have h...more
Home schooled Prairie Evers is about fourth grade when her parents decide to leave the North Carolina countryside that is the only home she has ever known. Her mother has inherited the family farm in upstate New York. It is a rough transition made worse when her adored grandmother (who is also her teacher and best friend) decides the northern landscape is too cold and unfamiliar and moves back south. Only her newfound enthusiasm to raise chickens pulls her out of her lonely slump. Much to her ch...more
4 frosted sugar cookies.
Cover Love:
Yes. I think this is a darling cover!
Why I Wanted to Read This:
This book came out last spring and I heard a lot about it around the time it came out. But I was reading other things back then. I put it on my library order, though, and it came in this fall. Recently I just happened to pick it up and go sucked right into the story!
Romance?: No, but a super sweet best friendship evolves!
My Thoughts:
This book moved very quickly. It was an easy read and you will tot...more
Cover Love:
Yes. I think this is a darling cover!
Why I Wanted to Read This:
This book came out last spring and I heard a lot about it around the time it came out. But I was reading other things back then. I put it on my library order, though, and it came in this fall. Recently I just happened to pick it up and go sucked right into the story!
Romance?: No, but a super sweet best friendship evolves!
My Thoughts:
This book moved very quickly. It was an easy read and you will tot...more
Things I Liked:
I loved sweet Prairie and the way she hated change and couldn't see how things would work out, but then they did. I loved when she would say things and then how she learned not to say things. I loved watching her grow, listening to her voice, seeing her life changing in unexpected ways. This book tugged a little on my heartstrings, but even more made me feel nostalgic for my childhood. A sweet coming-of-age story of a young girl just beginning to understand life.
Things I Didn't Li...more
I loved sweet Prairie and the way she hated change and couldn't see how things would work out, but then they did. I loved when she would say things and then how she learned not to say things. I loved watching her grow, listening to her voice, seeing her life changing in unexpected ways. This book tugged a little on my heartstrings, but even more made me feel nostalgic for my childhood. A sweet coming-of-age story of a young girl just beginning to understand life.
Things I Didn't Li...more
Apr 25, 2013
Cook Memorial Public Library
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Shelves:
juvenile-fiction,
youth-fiction
Like Capricorn in "Schooled," Prairie has never attended school and isn't sure how to interact with the kids. Like Ruby in "Love, Ruby Lavender'" Prairie has a strong and supportive relationship with her spunky grandmother. Like Ally in "Every Soul a Star," Prairie has a strong connection with the natural world. And like these characters, Prairie is a unique and likable character. Airgood is a talented writer and has given Prairie an unusual and authentic voice. With short chapters and lots of u...more
Like Capricorn in "Schooled," Prairie has never attended school and isn't sure how to interact with the kids. Like Ruby in "Love, Ruby Lavender'" Prairie has a strong and supportive relationship with her spunky grandmother. Like Ally in "Every Soul a Star," Prairie has a strong connection with the natural world. And like these characters, Prairie is a unique and likable character. Airgood is a talented writer and has given Prairie an unusual and authentic voice. With short chapters and lots of u...more
A lovely little book that I would recommend to young readers interested in human relationships and growing up.
Prairie has always been home schooled. She's a little wild, but she's smart, proactive, and and caring. One day, after her beloved grandmother moves away, Prairie decides she's going to learn how to raise chickens. It's a tough job, but Prairie takes to it easily, and soon they're laying eggs. Then, one upsetting day, Prairie's parents tell her she has to go to school. But if she didn't...more
Prairie has always been home schooled. She's a little wild, but she's smart, proactive, and and caring. One day, after her beloved grandmother moves away, Prairie decides she's going to learn how to raise chickens. It's a tough job, but Prairie takes to it easily, and soon they're laying eggs. Then, one upsetting day, Prairie's parents tell her she has to go to school. But if she didn't...more
Quirky, independent main character? Check. Unusual first name? Check. Okay, let's see how many issues mc has to deal with recent move from North Carolina to upstate New York, beloved grandmother about to move back south, about to attend school for the first time, no friends, newly found friend in fellow outcast, new friend has a secret. I liked, but did not love or connect emotionally with this story. There were moments of lovely writing, Prairie was spunky. The chapters were short, and had cute...more
Prairie Evers has always been home schooled by her grandmother. She has always had her mom, dad, and grandmother with her. Then they move from North Carolina to New York. After three months in NY, Grammy decides to move back to NC. Prairie learns to cope without Grammy and gets home schooled by her parents. But then her parents decide she should attend school. She never has and doesn't want to! She learns to adjust to the meanness of kids and makes a friend, Ivy. Prairie comes to learn that not...more
When her parents move from the South to the North to live off the land her mother has inherited, ten-year-old Prairie Evers isn't particularly thrilled. But things get even worse once her grandmother leaves to go back home and her mother takes a job that leaves her with no time to continue to homeschool Prairie. Prairie hates school from the beginning and would prefer to spend her days with the chickens she is raising on the farm. She cannot stand the loud yellow bus that picks her up every morn...more
Fans of Ida B desperate for a book like Ida B, may enjoy the world of chicken-raising Prairie Evers. When her mother inherits her parents house in upstate New York, Prairie is forced to move from her home in North Carolina to New York. As if that weren't bad enough, Prairie's grandmother leaves, and her parents, decide she should go to public school after being homeschooled her whole life. Prairie must learn to navigate going to school, making friends, and how to help her new best friend cope wi...more
I didn't want to read this. I mean, chickens? Really? No, thanks. But I decided to give it a few pages, and before I knew it, I was a good 50 pages into the story. Prairie sucked me right in. Turns out, chickens aren't so bad (as long as I just get to eat them and their tasty by-products, not actually be in the same general area as live ones).
Prairie Evers' world is changing too quickly. First she is dragged away from her North Carolina home to live in the hills of upstate New York. Fine. She d...more
Prairie Evers' world is changing too quickly. First she is dragged away from her North Carolina home to live in the hills of upstate New York. Fine. She d...more
Great adult role-models in this book. I absolutely loved the grandmother! She made me miss my own. I loved that Prairie’s parents didn’t make a big deal out of being a little different, but didn’t make any excuses either, and that they were firm with setting boundaries and expecting Prairie to do what they told her to do, but were also very understanding and supportive of Prairie’s ideas and some things she wanted to do. (They were almost too perfect.) It was interesting to see what a great kid...more
Ellen Airgood is an author whose books I will seek to read, even when they are written for young people. Prairie Evers, the main character here, has such spunk and feeling. She is the first book character who made me interested in Googling Silver Wyandottes and Australorps! The story has such a great heart, as Prairie learns about life and loss, yearning and learning, and friendship in New Paltz, New York.
Airgood's first book, South of Superior, is also on my shelf at home. I recommend it, too.
Airgood's first book, South of Superior, is also on my shelf at home. I recommend it, too.
There are too many changes going on in Prairie's life -- the move from North Carolina to Upstate New York, her beloved Grammy going home, and having to start going to school after being home-schooled by Grammy her whole life. Just when she thinks she can't bear it, two things come into her life, her chickens and a friend. Prairie learns that everyone, not only her, is facing some kind of battle. She keeps persevering until things begin to change for the better. Recommended for grades 4-7.
Wholesome down to earth children's literature. Prairie is a sassy and likable young girl who loves chickens and her granny. What could be sweeter? I like that this family shows a somewhat alternative family who would rather drink malts, make birdhouses, and go to the library than play on the computer. Despite the almost saccharin nature of the first half of this book, Airgood manages to give dimension to Prairie as she struggles to understand Ivy's emotions towards her mother.
Lovely tale of a NC girl who moves to upstate NY to live with her farming family. Her beloved grandmother moves back to NC and for the first time, Prairie must go to a public school. She befriends Ivy, who has a terrible family life with a mother who would rather not be bothered with her. Prairie raises her chickens, learns lessons from coyotes and ultimately becomes a real sister to Ivy. Just delightful and wholesome with a remarkable little girl at its core.
I liked this book a lot better than I thought I would from the cover and summary. It's a pretty light realistic fiction, a few social issues thrown in to make it interesting. Good characterization of the main character, but other characters are pretty thin - it would've interesting to think about what we might have known about the adults in the book if it hadn't been told from the pov of the adoring main character. GSF nominee 13-14.
This gentle story covers a lot of ground (homeschooling, only-child, multi-generational families, computer vs book learning) even some not so comfortable territory (domestic violence, parental neglect). The book design is lovely, including names for the brief chapters. Airgood has created in Prairie a likable but not flawless character that does not insult readers looking for a fresh take on realistic fiction.
Prairie has always been a free child, growing up with her beloved Grammy and parents in the North Carolina mountains while being homeschooled. When her parents relocate to a farm in New Paltz, N.Y., Grammy returns to North Carolina and 10-year-old Prairie enters school for the first time.
Read the rest of my review at: http://shouldireaditornot.wordpress.c...
Read the rest of my review at: http://shouldireaditornot.wordpress.c...
Here it is, my favorite book of 2012! The chicken tie-in (pecking order!) is too cute! Great conversation and characterization. Prairie learns what being a true friend is all about, also something she needs as she tackles public school after being homeschooled for so many yearsP. Good read-aloud for grades 4 and up.
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Ten year old Prairie Evers embarks upon the adventures of finding her first best friend, raising her own chickens who lay eggs for her, and the challenges of attending public school instead of the wonderful homeschooling she received from her Grammy and nature. Reviewer 21
Jan 20, 2013
Tim
added it
What a great book! Loved the gentle storytelling style of this author. This is a wonderful story of a girl, her family, and a first best friend... along with some chickens.
This was Ellen Airgood's first children's book, and I can't wait to go find her other books.
This was Ellen Airgood's first children's book, and I can't wait to go find her other books.
Prairie Evers,A home-schooled student who moves to new york and life changes forever, for better or worse when she is sent to school. This is an delightful book that follows the troubles and joys of a young girl trying make her new life work for her.
You can lear much about friendship by watching chickens. Prairie Evers has her first true friend. But just like raising chickens, friendship comes with responsibilities. It was funny and sweet to watch Prairie learn about life and how to be a good friend.
Nice character development for Prairie, but Ivy's story was left unfinished at the end. The incorporation of Prairie's Cherokee heritage was a good idea, but definitely not developed enough. And Ivy's interest in the Cherokees was unexplained and confusing.
Prairie is home schooled by her grandma and loves the freedom of her rural life. A move and big changes lead her to a new friendship with classmate Ivy and an understanding of how other families live. The book takes place over one year, sandwiched between two New Years Eve games of Monopoly and the pace is rather quiet and reflective. My second grader liked it.
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I grew up on a small farm, the youngest of four children. My father was a blacksmith and a schoolteacher. For the last nineteen years I’ve been a waitress in Grand Marais, Michigan. I was twenty-five when I came to this tiny, Lake Superior town, on a camping trip with my sister, and fell in love with the man who made my cheese sandwich and chocolate malt at the local diner. We met, exchanged asses...more
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Feb 24, 2013 06:59am