When I read kid books, I try to keep in mind the way the child would read
them. Children, in my experience, read primarily for story line and dramatic
telling. They don’t pay attention to imagery, foreshadowing or any other of
the many literary devices that can make books compelling. And that’s OK.
It’s the way I read many books also. However, there are occasionally
children’s books with deeper themes that catch my attention and then I begin
to pay attention to what I call the deliberateness of the author. Those are
the books I talk about with my kids. And they are the books I give away as
gifts at Christmas and birthday time. I have a feeling there are 3 or 4 kids
who will be getting this series for Christmas this year.

Moody writes about his childhood in Colorado, Boston and Maine. When the
series opens, his family has moved to Colorado to farm in hopes that the
dryer climate will help cure his father’s TB acquired from working in the
textile mills of the East. Little Britches is a homesteading story told from
the viewpoint of a 9 year old boy, Ralph, nicknamed “Little Britches” by the
cowboys on a nearby ranch. The family struggles to make it on the farm with
poor land and very little water. There are disasters and good times but
through it all is a deep sense of the value of every member of the family.
Ingenuity and hardwork are portrayed as positives in this book and although
the family doesn’t make it on the farm, it’s not for lack of trying.

Man Of The Family picks up where Little Britches
left off. Father has died
of complications from pneumonia leaving Mother with 4 kids to feed and 4
months pregnant. They move to town and again pull together as a family
working odd jobs, raising food and keeping body and soul together as best
they can. Throughout the book, the emphasis is on hard work and the blessing
of having enough to eat and a warm place to live.

The Home Ranch is a side story briefly mentioned in
Man of the Family
when Ralph takes a job, for a man’s wage of a dollar a day, at a cattle
ranch as a cowboy. It’s a great story with horses and storms and cowboys who
take him under their wing teaching him what he needs to do to work like a
man. Part of what makes this book so much fun is the mentoring he gets from
the older men.

Mary Emma and Company takes the family back to Boston. Mother has been
subpoenaed in Colorado to give evidence against a horse thief that she knows
is up to be hung based upon her testimony. Her principles won’t allow her to
send a man to the gallows so the whole family goes back to Boston to avoid
the consequences of the trial. Here she must find a new way to support the
family and Ralph must find his own place in a very different world than the
one he is used to. Ralph gets a job after school and Mother and Grace,
Ralph’s older sister, take in laundry to keep food on the table.
Unfortunately, what seemed normal activities in Colorado don’t quite fly in
the city and Ralph keeps finding himself in trouble both in school and out.

The Fields of Home has Ralph going to his grandfather’s farm in Maine to
keep him out of trouble. Here he has to deal with his crusty, cantankerous
grandfather who cant seem to adjust to anything new and makes life miserable
for Ralph. This book is about how both of them learn to get along and bridge
the gap in the generations. And it’s on the farm in Maine that Ralph finally
realizes that he needs to work with the soil and animals to be content.

I loved these books. They celebrate values like pride in the quality of your
work and perseverance in the face of hard times. The kids in these books
know who they are and how important they are to the survival of the family.
Moody could have made the books seem glum and grim but he rather emphasizes
the joy in living and working and being with family. Mother sings as she
works and Ralph is very proud of his reputation as a kid who can work like a
man. It’s refreshing to read. They’d make great read alouds for parents to
share with their children.