What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
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Half a Team
SOLVED: Children's/YA
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SOLVED. YA Book about a man and his daughter trying to adjust to moving home to the family farm without the wife/mother who stays behind in the city. Read late 1980s/early 2000s. [s]
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No, unfortunately! I checked earlier, and have googled and searched till my brain hurts. Thank you though!
I feel like the story was both about the girl coming to understand and appreciate rural life, and also she and her father wrestling with the changes and how best to live together and work together as a team. I think it takes place in an era either without things like cars or at least cars are not commonplace just yet? Any help would be so so appreciated.
When in the '90s did you read it?Could it have been as late as 1999?
Rainbowheart wrote: "When in the '90s did you read it?Could it have been as late as 1999?"
Yes definitely, it could even have been in the 2000s, though the setting of the book itself was much older. I wish I had a sense of the publication date!
Thanks, that's helpful!What's the latest year you could have read it?
Was the story told solely from the POV of the daughter?
Yes, if I remember correctly it's either only her pov or either a non character pov.
Red Sky at Morning doesn't sound quite right, but it does have an ailing grandparent on a family farm. Does 1909 seem like the right time period?Callie's grandfather (Opa) settled his Indiana farm 40 years ago, but for Callie, her older sister Katherine, and their mother, the future lies in Oregon, where their father is already searching for the right farm. Then Mama dies in childbirth; Callie and Katherine, awaiting their father's return, continue to pitch in on Opa's farm. When Katherine leaves home to earn money, Callie is left on her own to face a diphtheria epidemic, cope with Opa's weak heart, and carry on with the chores until she is exhausted. This story of hardship on the turn-of-the-century Indiana prairie, in the tradition of Wilder's Little House books, is peopled by hale and hearty farmers (like the gruff, loving Opa) and a young girl with an indomitable spirit. While Callie's feelings about her father's moral slipperiness go unresolved, readers will hope to encounter this young pioneer again.
Possibly. That book isn't quite it in terms of plot. I wish I could remember publication date or even a piece of the title!
I want to say the book is set sometime in the early to mid 1900s but I am just not 100% sure that is true. Something about the age of machines coming into play on surrounding farms feels familiar.
I could also have read this in the early 2000s but the setting of the book and it's potential publication date may have been much earlier.
I'll keep looking!Is the girl a teenager or a younger child?
I believe somewhere between 10-13, but not feeling 100% sure about that!
Thanks, no I think the majority of the major plot points I have right (mom is not with daughter and dad, they move to rural farm without her, try to adjust to the separation, etc). The part I remember the most clearly is the cake making. The general rural theme, the young girl trying to to sort out this new life, the mom being "sick" but also possibly just hating the country, that is all stuff I feel good about being right. I feel a little fuzzy on the role of other characters in the book. For instance, I know there are different neighbors and I believe at least another young person, but I can't remember much about any of that.
This is a tough one! I'll keep looking.Do you think it was definitely set in the US?
Yes, almost 100% certain it is set in the US.
Hannah Stands Tall doesn't seem right either.It's a girl and her father on a farm, but her mother is dead.
I am beginning to wonder about the publication date range. I may be way off!
What's the latest possible year you think you could have read it?
I mean, realistically, I could have read it up until the 2010's. My brain is not the best for retaining that sort of information. However, there was absolutely an old timey feel to the book itself. Like maybe even talk about a neighboring farm being the first to introduce equipment to help with field work in the area, and how much it was going to change everything for everyone else.
So like 2019?I'll expand the date range and see what I can come up with!
You are AMAZING! Thank you so much for taking an interest in helping me find this book!
No prob!I'll keep looking. It's amazing the number of dead mothers out there, lol. So many books about girls on farms with their dads, but their mothers have died.
Half a Team?Fourteen-year-old Cindy, a farm child, is forced to assume a mature role when her citified mother is stricken with tuberculosis and returns with the two younger children to town. Cindy pitches to with a will, working endlessly if somewhat ineptly in order to comfort her father and assure her favorite team of horses security. But when economic pressure mounts, Cindy's father is forced to sell one of the horses, and, from then on, Cindy's precarious world seems to tumble. Her mother, somewhat recovered, hesitates to return to the family and Cindy is forced to realize that she is hopelessly ill-equipped to fill her mother's role. An understanding neighbor convinces Cindy's father that he must reassure his wife that she is wanted and she helps train Cindy in her household tasks. With the return of Cindy's mother, the team of horses is also reunited, with everyone reasoning that half a team brings sorrow and fruitlessness to both partners. A full and effective story which deals with emotions--love of family and animals--close to the concern of young readers.
It does have the baking soda incident!Cindy got out plates and forks, and cut each of them a big piece of cake. She poured each of them a glass of milk. Too excited to be hungry, she watched Ben Thompson cut off a chunk of cake and pop it into his mouth.
"Ahrg! Ugh!" Ben let out a half-choked roar, leaped from his chair, and dashed out the door. A moment later he reappeared. He stood in the doorway, pointing at Cindy with a trembling finger. "Trying to poison me!" he shrilled. "I'll have you and your father both in court, you see if I don't." And he disappeared, slamming the door behind him.
Cindy was stunned with horror. Everything had been going so well. Old Ben had seemed pleased. Then — what in the world had happened? Had she really put poison in the cake without knowing it? She imagined herself in a courtroom, accused of trying to poison Ben Thompson. Everyone was looking at her as they might at some dreadful, venomous snake. There was no way she could convince them she hadn't meant to do it.
"The first thing you did wrong, Cindy, was to use baking soda instead of baking powder. They're both good for making things rise. But baking soda only works when you use certain other things with it — sour milk, or brown sugar, or chocolate. Your second mistake was not sifting the dry things together. Your soda was lumpy, and it didn't get mixed in well with the flour and sugar. Ben Thompson bit into a lump of soda, and if you'd ever done that you'd understand how he could think he'd been poisoned. The third thing you did wrong was to put in that vinegar where it should have been vanilla. Wherever that got to the soda, it made the soda start to work. But that was only in spots, and that's why you had lumps on the top."
OH MY GOSH YES THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! I had the name right but it was obsure enough not to come up in my searches without the author! WOWZER!!!!!!
I had SOME but definitely not all the plot correct. Thank you again so much, this is so great!
Oh, awesome, super glad it was the right one!
What's the Name of That Book???
Books mentioned in this topic
Half a Team (other topics)Copper Magic (other topics)
Hannah Stands Tall (other topics)
A Kind of Courage (other topics)
Red Sky at Morning (other topics)
I am looking for a book that I read sometime between the late 1980's to 1990s but could have been published before that. The plot is about a young girl and her father moving back to the father's family farm, where at least one of his parents still live. Not certain, but I think he comes home to help his aging parent. His wife stays back in the city, possibly with another child, because she is "ill" but it may be that she simply refuses to live in the country. She may have tried at one point and then left. The young girl struggles with the transition, but slowly begins to appreciate things about her experiences there. At one point she tries to befriend a neighbor who seems very grumpy and unkind, but turns out he is nice but lonely. She makes him a cake, I think for his birthday, but because she doesn't really know how to do that, she uses the wrong thing (baking soda instead of powder) and its awful and he thinks she is trying to poison him. She is very upset. At first he is too, but then he gets over it and they become friends. Maybe her grandmother talks to the old man. There are scenes about her father having to learn to use horses or donkeys to plow the fields and she follows along picking up rocks and throwing them for him. This is where some of the morality lessons come into play, about the two of them learning to be a team like the horses (or donkeys?). The title itself may be a reference to a team of horses, or something like that. There is also another neighbor who is much kinder, and maybe even another kid who is from there who plays a role. I believe the grandparent passes away and the community comes together to support them and maybe helps with the harvest. And either the mother comes or the girl tries to go back, but it doesn't feel right anymore. I believe the mother is upset because the girl is no longer in ribbons and dresses and instead is dirty and hard working. In the end the girl and her father stay on the farm, and the wife and possibly other child remain in the city. It felt like the parents separation (and maybe divorce?) was a subtle theme throughout the book.
Any help would be so appreciated!