Dick was very happy the day the new tractor came, not realizing all the trouble it would bring. His father's farm was a busy place, with rolling fields of tall corn, and field crops to plant and harvest. Dick loved the farm animals—the pigs, the chickens and the cows—but most of all, the wild animals that needed his help.
Every day brought its drama—the cycle of birth and death, the uncertainty of weather, on which the crops depended, a hurt or sick animal to tend, a breakdown of machinery. Summer brought good times as well as hard work. There were family picnics, days at the swimming hole, trips to town, visits from relatives. When an accident happened, the neighbors stepped in and brought a warm feeling of friendliness. Dick shares it all fully, until he faces a complete change in his whole life, taking all the courage and strength he possesses.
Lois Lenski visited Iowa in mid-summer, stayed in farm-homes, and got her story directly from farm children and their families. In addition to drawing an accurate picture of American farm life she has given us a boy who, out of the rich experience of life close to nature and animals, finds the strength to work out his personal problems.
—from the dust jacket
LL was born in Springfield, Ohio, and spent ber childhood years in that state. After graduation from Ohio State University in 1915 she studied four years at the Art Students League in New York before going to London to attend the Westminster School of Art.
On her return to America she wrote her first book, Skipping Village, in 1927. With this and the book that followed, A Little Girl of 1900, her career as an author-illustrator of children's books was firmly established. A number of humorous stories for younger children followed, and then the publication of Phebe Fairchild, Her Book started the author on a series of books depicting American child life of the past, with settings in Connecticut, Ohio, New Hampshire and New York.
The award to Lois Lenski of the 1946 Newbery Medal for Strawberry Girl not only represented appropriate recognition by the American Library Association of the outstanding children's book of the year, but focused national attention on Miss Lenski's important program of regional books for children, The American Regional Series.
This program began with Bayou Suzette, a Louisiana story, for which Miss Lenski received the Martha Kinney Cooper Ohioana Library Medal in 1944. The series were honored again in 1947 when Judy's Journey won the annual award of the Child Study Association. Through these books and the other distinguished re gional stories young readers travel all over this country. From the Florida pinelands of Strawberry Girl to the colorful streets of Chinatown in San Francisco Boy, Lois Lenski's stories and pictures are a vivid, authentic portrait of how American children live.
The enthusiastic reception given The American Regional Series by teachers and librarians prompted Miss Lenski to launch a similar group of books for younger children, The Roundabout America Series.
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