Books for Christian Girls: "Prairie Homestead" by Arleta Richardson

About this book:

“Since their mama died and their pa left, Ethan, Alice, Simon, and Will Cooper have not known much of a home. But now that the orphan train has taken them to Mr. and Mrs. Rush in Nebraska, their dreams of home may become a reality.
The kids discover that life on a farm is full of challenges. Ethan learns how to drive a plow, watch for snakes, and deal with bullies at the country school. Alice learns to slop the hogs and live with a big sister who isn’t exactly welcoming. Will seems to be the only one of the four that their new mother likes. And Simon disappears—again.”

Series: Book #3 in “The Orphans’ Journey” series. Review of Book #1 Here! and Book #2 Here!

Spiritual Content- A couple of Scriptures are mentioned & quoted; Prayers & Thanking God; Talks about God, His reasons for things that happen, & a couple discusses their spiritual welfare; 'H's are capital when referring to God; It’s said the one of the hired hands on the ranch doesn’t depend much on prayer and another tells him that he doesn’t have any guarantees on how long he’ll live (so he should get seriously about God; he tells the other man to keep praying for him and he’ll be safe; The man was upset that their prayers didn’t help heal a child, but prays for another child who is possibly in trouble); The new mother realizes that she wants to get closer to God to be able to depend on Him more & discusses it with her husband; Mentions of God, trusting Him, & faiths; Mentions of prayers, praying, & blessings over food; Mentions of churches, church going, services, hymns, preachers, & Sunday school lessons; Mentions of Christians & Christian duties (one man says that another man may be religious, but he doesn’t see eye to eye with him on the Christian part as he thinks that being a Christian should improve your disposition and hasn’t for the other man); Mentions of a Christian children’s home; Mentions of a Christmas celebration & the first Christmas; A few mentions of those & events in the Bible; A mention of missionaries.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘dumb’; Some of the adults roll their eyes, use sarcasm, & bicker/snap at each other; Mentions of deaths, a child falling through a frozen pond and dying from pneumonia, & grief (for a son); Mentions of someone being bitten by a rattlesnake, the near death, the injury, & the dead snake (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of a thief, stealing, & stolen money; Mentions of switches/strappings & Ethan being strapped by his new father (including Ethan being upset at the thought of his younger siblings being hit and another adult saying that the new mother won’t let the father touch them); Mentions of a father strapping his son & the son having welts and bruises frequently (including a mention of the father trying to break his son and the son now being a father and trying to do the same to his son (according to someone else)); Mentions of a bully & his mean comments towards the children who came from the Orphan Train; A few mentions of someone possibly dying on a trip (a mother’s concern); A few mentions of hunting; A couple mentions of Ethan wondering if an Indian will kill or scalp him; A couple mentions of Ethan’s biological father leaving his family; A couple mentions of jealousy; A couple mentions of a saloon; A mention of a possible kidnapping; A mention of possible fires;
             *Note: In the Cooper kids’ new family, there is a daughter who was adopted with another little boy, but when the boy passed away, she’s been after her parents to get “another boy to replace [him]”; Some others tell the family to send back the children if they can’t handle it; There are quite a few prejudice comments about orphans (including someone not wanting to believe a boy is innocent from a crime); Ethan is asked why he and Alice do not call their new parents mom and dad and he says “I kinda feel like they aren’t really being our parents. They’re just keeping us.” (towards the beginning); There’s some sibling bickering and one of the boys comments that “it’s no use trying to tell a girl anything”; A few comments from the hired help for a family complaining about a family adopting (because it will be more work for them); A few mentions of some Indians not liking white folks because of the government pushing them onto the reservations; A mention of the children becoming as “brown as the Indians” due to them playing in the sun.

Sexual Content- Frances is disappointed to find out a young man is already spoken for, but realizes that she was “dreaming to think he would pay special attention to her”; A mention of a teenage girl blushing over an older young man; A mention of a woman remembering of when her daydreams placed her in a “man’s favor”.

-Ethan Cooper, age 9
                             P.O.V. switches between many different characters
                                         Set in 1908
                                                        192 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

{Could possibly be triggering for adoptees}

I was actually incredibly nervous going into this book because the prior book didn’t set up their new family as the best with comments about the dad being stoic, the mom being flighty, and the daughter being spoiled and bratty (paraphrasing here, but that’s what I recall gathering about them). Thankfully they weren’t too bad, in reality, and there’s character development for the parents. Though my heart wished it had been more of a sweet welcoming for the kids with everything they’ve been through.

See y’all on Monday with a new review!