Growing Seasons

Elsie Splear the author of the book Growing Seasons writes about her life in the early 1900's. It is a story about a family that lives on a farm and all the things that happen in their daily lives. The book is written from the view of a young child Elsie. I look at this to be a fairly accurate piece since the author is writing about her life in a children's book.

In the early 1900's the roles that each family member played seemed carved in stone. The father did the farm chores such as, thrashing, husking, and butchering. The mother and the four girls did the other chores like, cooking, cleaning, canning, gardening, washing, and milking. The father made an invention that he showed off at the Fourth of July Festival. This family must have been financially stable because they were able to afford a Model T Ford. When I read, this I thought the women and the children did a tremendous amount of work and the father, was only around in certain parts of the story.

I believe that this is a great story for children to hear from a teacher. It does let them know about how lives were different only a hundred years ago. It brings up many questions about how roles within a family have changed, or how they might have stayed the same. One question that can be asked of the students is, what inventions have made life easier on people today?

The balance between fact and storyline is there. The fact part comes from the view of a child that lived in the time period of the 1900's. The storyline is that kids might be able to envision what it would have been like if they grew up in the same time period. The book probably gives kids a greater appreciation of the hardships that their great or great, great grandparents might have endured.