Gr. 4^-6. This lightweight, agreeable novel is set in the late nighteenth century. Twelve-year-old Rachel loves the Dakota prairie, but her widowed father struggles against drought on their farm, and finally sends Rachel and her younger brother, John Wesley, to Savannah to stay the summer with their mother's sister, Aggie. Aggie lives in a fine house (and has suffragist leanings) but the children long for their home. When Pa comes to take them back and announces he is marrying again, Rachel is furious and sets up a number of fairly predictable obstacles that go awry. Of course, Pa marries the schoolteacher anyway, Rachel is reconciled, and the rain does come. The lightly sketched historical setting is laid out with a nice use of language; 10-year-old John Wesley is a madcap foil to his older sister; and their mother's presence through her paintings and letters is well-handled. --GraceAnne A. DeCandido

Gr 4-6-Twelve-year-old Rachel's first-person narrative will quickly draw readers into this story of a tenacious family on the drought-stricken Dakota prairie a century ago. The author's poetic language provides sensuous descriptions of Midwestern life: the rattle of dry corn stalks, the smell of new lambs. When the drought shows no signs of letting up, Rachel and her nine-year-old brother, John Wesley, are sent to visit their aunt in Georgia. There they reminisce about their mother, who died four years before, as they find her clothes, letters, and paintings in her family's home. The themes of loss and renewal are carried out on a human level as the children's father marries their teacher. Rachel acts out her resentment by attempting to convince the woman that the life of a prairie wife is too hard for her, with near-tragic results. Only when she realizes that her father needs companionship does Rachel accept the idea of a new stepmother. This tale of moving painfully toward the acceptance of change transcends its historical setting. It is simply yet artfully told with characters both realistic and endearing, and should appeal to readers who enjoyed Patricia MacLachlan's Sarah, Plain and Tall (HarperCollins, 1985).-Valerie Diamond, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, MD (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.