Our family loves the Little House on the Prairie series. But it has a decidedly girlish slant, given that the main character is female. Granted, the father is a solid masculine figure, but wouldn’t it be great if there were a series that had a boy as the main protagonist?
Enter Little Britches! We picked this book up while visiting Denver at the Littleton Museum and Homestead. It chronicles a few years in the life of a pioneer family who leaves New England to make a go of it out in Colorado on the prairie.
Ralph Moody was eight years old in 1906 when his family moved from New Hampshire to a Colorado ranch. Through his eyes we experience the pleasures and perils of ranching there early in the twentieth century. Auctions and roundups, family picnics, irrigation wars, tornadoes and wind storms give authentic color to Little Britches. So do adventures, wonderfully told, that equip Ralph to take his father’s place when it becomes necessary.
Ralph and his father are the main characters, and it is simply amazing to read about the grown-up things he was doing as early as 9 years old: breaking and training horses, herding cattle, riding bucking broncos (and mules), helping bring in the hay.
Life was rough there–Ralph almost dies about four times–and heartbreaking things happen throughout the course of the story. I won’t ruin it, but suffice it to say that there were some bad dudes out on the frontier back in those days.
At the same time, there was a much better culture for becoming a man. Boys nowadays sit in classes all day until they’re 18 years old, then to make a living typically go to college for another four or five years. And yet they don’t learn a tenth of practical skills that Ralph learned by age 10.
One hope we have in buying land is to give our children an upbringing that includes homesteading aspects of the pioneer days. Oh sure, we’ll use modern technology for many things: power screwdrivers, tractors, etc. etc., but we will also be exposing them to working with natural materials, building things, caring for animals and seeing them be born and die, giving them responsibilities to help them grow as human beings.
So I’m grateful for Little Britches and the portrait it paints of life one hundred years ago. For fathers and sons, I can’t recommend the book enough.
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Glad you’re back in Texas. Great state, isn’t it?
Sue, it truly is a great State.
My little brother and I read all of Moody’s books about 25-30 years ago. Those were some of the best books from our late childhood-early teen years. It is the dream of my wife and I to also have land, homestead it, and continue raising our children and hopefully grandchildren there.
Clayton, I wish I had discovered them earlier. It was only by visiting the Littleton museum and learning about the area that I was turned on to the books. I look forward to reading the rest of the books based on your recommendation!
Thanks for the recommendation–always looking for good reads for my grandkids
Kim, you’re welcome! There is a small bit of saucy language/cursing from some of the rougher cowboys in it but it is infrequent.
I don’t have any kids, and I’d like to read it.
If you’re reading Little House, you’ve surely read “Farmer Boy,” I hope! It’s “Little House for Boys” by definition and design!
Kathleen, yes we have read it, many times because it is our favorite one in the series! Seriously I wish they had more about Almanzo growing up.
I have 5 kids (all girls) so yeah… we watch LHOTP. It is a schizophrenic show. On episode is about lovey-dovey little girl crush nonesense, and the next is about pretty manly stuff. So we skip some episodes.
Yesterday we watched the episode “Bully Boys” from the 3rd? season and it was great. “Pa” gets in a knock-down drag out fist fight with some dudes who were “putting their hands on” “Ma”!!! It was great! And had a really great message about how to deal with bullies. The townsfolk tried to be like Christ, but in the end, the town ran the bad guys out by force. Great episode.
Overall though, yes the episodes tilt to the girl end of the spectrum. And although Michael Landon is quite manly in the show, Pa does get misty a bit to much for my taste. There is a time for a man to cry, but come on dude, not every episode.
I have heard good things about the old GH Henty novels as well.