Little Britches

  A Book for the Whole Family

Caleb of Newberg, 8/1/2016

Ralph Moody's book Father and I Were Ranchers is a wonderful collection of memories. My mother has read this book aloud to the entire family, and all 9 of us enjoyed it.

Ralph and his family move to a small plot of land with a ramshackle new house on it, with barely a wagon, some money, food, and clothes. Their "ranch" is not what they expected, but thanks to some friendly neighbors that help them along, they get along fine. Except for the tornado, drought, and ditch fights.

  Character Building and Entertaining

Michelle of PA, 5/31/2012

I would give this book a thousand stars if I could. I read this book to my children a couple of summers ago and we were hooked. We ended up getting the whole series and they were all wonderful! Ralph Moody writes about his early years in this book, especially the lessons he learns from his father: integrity, courage and upright character. Like this... "A man's character is like his house. If he tears boards off his house and burns them to keep himself warm and comfortable, his house soon becomes a ruin. If he tells lies to be able to do the things he shouldn't do but wants to, his character will soon become a ruin. A man with a ruined character is a shame on the face of the earth," his father explained. The Moody family arrives in Colorado in 1906 in hopes of improving his father's tuberculosis. They have never worked a ranch before, but Ralph is in love with horses and the whole adventure. There are school fights, first jobs, tornadoes, rodeos, trick riding and tragedy in this first book. In some places there is some cowboy language which I changed or just said "beep" when I read it out loud. It isn't much and certainly not enough to not experience this wonderful book!