Lost On The Prairie

Shortlisted, 2021 Manitoba Book Awards, Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book Nominated, Manitoba Young Readers Choice Awards 2023, Sundogs Award Set between Kansas and Saskatchewan in 1907, this middle-grade novel follows a young boy who gets separated from his family en route to Canada and must find his way alone across the immense prairie landscape. Following the sudden death of his eldest brother, twelve-year-old Peter is chosen by his father to travel by train from Kansas to Saskatchewan to help set up the new family homestead. But when Peter's boxcar becomes uncoupled from the rest of the train somewhere in South Dakota, he finds himself lost and alone on the vast prairie. For a sheltered boy who has only read about adventures in books, Peter is both thrilled and terrified by the journey ahead. Along the way, he faces real dangers, from poisonous snakes to barn fires; meets people from all walks of life, including famous author Mark Twain; and grows more resourceful, courageous, and self-reliant as he makes his way across the Midwest to the Canadian border, eventually reaching his new home in Drake, Saskatchewan. The journey expands Peter's view of the world and shows him that the bonds of family and community, regardless of background, are universal and filled with love. Packed with excitement and adventure, this coming-of-age novel features a strong and likeable young protagonist and paints a realistic portrait of prairie life in the early twentieth century.

A pioneer pilgrimage, a tribute to Laura Ingalls Wilder, and a hilarious account of butter-churning obsession will make this a sure favorite.

A National Post Best Cookbook of 2021 A celebration of some of the lesser-known berries local to the prairie region, including sea buckthorn, haskap, saskatoons, currants, sour cherries, and chokecherries. This little cookbook is all about the berries and small fruits grown in prairie gardens, gathered from U-pick farms, and foraged in the wild. Home cook and accomplished gardener Sheryl Normandeau presents 65 recipes for everything from meat, poultry, and fish dishes, vegetable and grain dishes, to desserts, baked goods, beverages, and preserves (including fruit leather). If you’ve ever gathered some of these favourite prairie berries and then wondered what to make, with Normandeau’s help you’ll soon have no trouble putting them to use in easy, fun, and flavourful recipes like: Sea Buckthorn Berry and Earl Grey Tea Cocktail Pan-Fried Salmon with Sea Buckthorn Berry Sauce Saskatoon Berry Cream Puffs Currant Meringue Cookies Haskap Beet Dark Chocolate Brownies Baked Brie with Chokecherry Drizzle Chokecherry Rosewater Jelly Beautifully illustrated, the book also includes instructions for how to make and process jams and jellies, tips for storing and drying berries, and guidelines for successful foraging. Whether you’re new to the prairie region’s flora or have a stockpile of fond roadside berry-picking memories, it’s the perfect go-to and gift.

A poem, accompanied by evocative landscape paintings, celebrates the natural beauty of the prairie and the joys of growing up on it.

"Little House on the Prairie" is an autobiographical children's novel by Laura Ingalls Wilder, published in 1935] It was the third novel published in the Little House series, continuing the story of the first, Little House in the Big Woods (1932), but not directly related to the second, Farmer Boy (1933). It chronicles the months the Ingalls spent on the Kansas prairie around the town of Independence.

Gold Medal Winner, 2019 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards, Pre-Teen Fiction E-Book Finalist, 2019 Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People A powerful and poignant story of two young girls' friendship, family, loss, and loyalty, set in 1940s Saskatchewan. “Beryl Young's novel Miles to Go is sparse, poetic and, at times, perfectly heart wrenching. It subtly captures the coming of age of two young prairie girls. The beauty of this story is in the little things, the life things. In short: it’s wonderful.”—Arthur Slade, Governor General’s Award–winning author of Dust “This is a tender story about two friends dealing with tragic personal loss. Beryl Young captures a snapshot of small town life in the 1940s. Lovingly told, realistic, sad, and, like life, often very funny.”—Harriet Zaidman, teacher-librarian and writer, Winnipeg, Manitoba Miles to Go is the story of a friendship between two twelve-year-old girls in a small Saskatchewan town. In the spring of 1948, each girl faces a heavy personal loss and challenges that threaten their friendship. Through a hard few months the girls learn the meaning of loyalty and the value of keeping a promise. Loosely based on the author's own experiences of growing up in rural Saskatchewan, this book's timeless themes and authentic emotion will speak to young readers.

In her diary, thirteen-year-old Hattie chronicles her family's arduous 1847 journey from Missouri to Oregon on the Oregon Trail.

The Black Prairie Archives: An Anthology recovers a new regional archive of “black prairie” literature, and includes writing that ranges from work by nineteenth-century black fur traders and pioneers, all of it published here for the first time, to contemporary writing of the twenty-first century. This anthology establishes a new black prairie literary tradition and transforms inherited understandings of what prairie literature looks and sounds like. It collects varied and unique work by writers who were both conscious and unconscious of themselves as black writers or as “prairie” people. Their letters, recipes, oral literature, autobiographies, rap, and poetry- provide vivid glimpses into the reality of their lived experiences and give meaning to them. The book includes introductory notes for each writer in non-specialist language, and notes to assist readers in their engagement with the literature. This archive and its supporting text offer new scholarly and pedagogical possibilities by expanding the nation’s and the region’s archives. They enrich our understanding of black Canada by bringing to light the prairies' black histories, cultures, and presences.