Caroline Starr Rose

picture book and middle-grade author

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Beyond Little House: Middle-Grade Frontier Books

12 Comments

frontier books

We all know the Little House books. If you know anything about me, you know Laura Ingalls and I are good friends. With May B. out there in the world, people often ask if I can recommend other frontier stories for young readers, those that move beyond the familiar titles we grew up with. Here’s a list put together by the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library with some additions of my own. Enjoy!

Hard Gold – Avi

Dear America: Land of Buffalo Bones – Bauer

The Courage of Sarah Noble – Dalgliesh

The Quilt Walk – Dallas

Weasel – DeFelice

Prairie River (series) – Gregory

My America: A Perfect Place – Hermes

Our Only May Amelia  and The Trouble with May Amelia – Holm

Julie Meyer: The Story of a Wagon Train Girl – Hoobler

To the Frontier: The Adventures of Young Buffalo Bill – Kimmel

Addie Across the Prairie – Lawlor

My Name is America: The Journal of Jedediah Barstow – Levine

Sarah, Plain and Tall – MacLachlan

My America: As Far as I Can See – McMullan

Dear America: West to the Land of Plenty – Murphy

May B. – Rose

One Came Home – Timberlake

And a few additions of my own:

Prairie School: An I Can Read Book  — Avi (this isn’t middle grade but is still worth including!)

Caddie Woodlawn – Brink

Prairie Songs – Conrad

The Misadventures of Maude March – Couloumbis

The Ballad of Lucy Whipple – Cushman

The Birchbark House  (series) – Eldrich

Dear America: Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie – Gregory

Dear America: The Great Railroad Race – Gregory

Young Pioneers – Lane

Hattie Big Sky and Hattie Ever After –  Larson (young adult, just on the cusp of middle grade)

Riding Freedom – Ryan

Pioneer Girl: A True Story of Growing Up on the Prairie – Warren

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Filed Under: books and reading, historical fiction, May B.

Comments

  1. jone says

    May 26, 2014 at 10:47 am

    Caroline, this is a fabulous list. I love many of the titles one it. Just this week some one asked my about the Little House series. I wish I would have had this to hand her. Thanks.

    Reply
    • Caroline says

      May 26, 2014 at 11:12 am

      So glad to hear it! I felt exactly the same way when a friend handed it to me. Now I have books I can recommend when people come asking…

      Reply
  2. April Bumgardner says

    May 31, 2014 at 7:13 am

    I really appreciate this list! So many great choices. I also like that many would appeal to boys and girls (I have 3 boys). Did I miss Caddie Woodlawn? Another great addition from the Native American perspective is Louise Erdrich’s series starting with The Birchbark House.

    Reply
    • Caroline says

      May 31, 2014 at 10:51 am

      Happy to hear it, April!

      That Caddie. I had her on the list originally but then pulled her off, thinking she fell into the same category as Laura — well known by our generation of readers. But perhaps she belongs. I can’t assume everyone knows the “oldies but goodies.” I think you’re right. She should be added back in.

      Thank you for suggesting Eldrich’s books. You’re absolutely right: they belong on this list.

      Reply
  3. Esther says

    May 31, 2014 at 8:24 pm

    Thank you for this! My daughter devoured all the Little House books, plus their predecessors (The Caroline Years, The Martha Years, The Rose Years etc.). I just picked up May B. as I saw it on another site recently. Now, thanks to your post, I have some more titles to add to my daughter’s rotation. She’ll be thrilled!

    Reply
    • Caroline says

      June 1, 2014 at 7:37 am

      Wonderful, Esther! May B., though in some ways written as a tribute to Laura, is quite different. I like to call it bleak but hopeful. As I was doing my research, this tone felt like the most honest way to capture the the era and May’s story in particular.

      I always feel wealthy when I have a big, sprawling list of books to read. Hope your daughter will feel the same.

      Reply
  4. Leslie says

    June 1, 2014 at 9:16 pm

    Great list! Thanks so much for putting this together 🙂

    I’m pinning it for later.

    Reply
    • Caroline says

      June 3, 2014 at 1:02 pm

      Enjoy!

      Reply
  5. Cynthia Cook says

    June 3, 2014 at 8:53 am

    Lucy Whipple by Karen Cushman and Prairie Songs by Pam Conrad might interest you.

    Reply
    • Caroline says

      June 3, 2014 at 9:06 am

      !!!!! How have I neglected to add two of my favorites EVER?????

      Reply
  6. Debbie Watley says

    June 14, 2014 at 7:22 pm

    The Jumping-Off Place by Marian Hurd McNeely takes place in rural South Dakota and is about orphaned siblings homesteading in the early 1900s. This book was published prior to the Little House series.

    Reply
    • Caroline says

      June 17, 2014 at 4:47 pm

      Thanks, Debbie!

      Reply

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