BOOK REVIEW
Title: Farm Kid: Tales of Growing up in Rural America
Author: Justin Isherwood
In ten words or less: Humorous, thoughtful stories of growing up on a farm.
Review: Farming is not for the faint of heart, writes Justin Isherwood, a fifth generation farmer from Plover, WI. Isherwood , who has received an award from the Council for Wisconsin Writers, grew up on a dairy farm. Being a farm kid in the 1950s guaranteed a life full of chores, adventures, and sometimes peril. The 63 stories in “Farm Kid” focus on the simple pastimes and objects of childhood, such as jackknives, icicles, manure, high-top shoes, and chasing cows.
Though mostly of a lighthearted nature, the tales do venture occasionally into more serious territory, acknowledging the reality of the dangers of farm work. Animal lovers may not appreciate his story of using some of the many farm cats as ammunition in his homemade catapult.
Why bother? Isherwood uses his words as an artist uses color; to create a world so real you can smell the cows. He describes his grandfather, “I remember that look of a grown man so like a child, looking into the fire. On his face the look of the whole crayon box, all its colorations. Wonder. Contentment. Pleasure. Nurture. Peace. Bliss. Contentment. Satisfaction.”
Other books by Isherwood are “ Book of Plough” and “The Farm West of Mars.”
Title: Farm Kid: Tales of Growing up in Rural America
Author: Justin Isherwood
In ten words or less: Humorous, thoughtful stories of growing up on a farm.
Review: Farming is not for the faint of heart, writes Justin Isherwood, a fifth generation farmer from Plover, WI. Isherwood , who has received an award from the Council for Wisconsin Writers, grew up on a dairy farm. Being a farm kid in the 1950s guaranteed a life full of chores, adventures, and sometimes peril. The 63 stories in “Farm Kid” focus on the simple pastimes and objects of childhood, such as jackknives, icicles, manure, high-top shoes, and chasing cows.
Though mostly of a lighthearted nature, the tales do venture occasionally into more serious territory, acknowledging the reality of the dangers of farm work. Animal lovers may not appreciate his story of using some of the many farm cats as ammunition in his homemade catapult.
Why bother? Isherwood uses his words as an artist uses color; to create a world so real you can smell the cows. He describes his grandfather, “I remember that look of a grown man so like a child, looking into the fire. On his face the look of the whole crayon box, all its colorations. Wonder. Contentment. Pleasure. Nurture. Peace. Bliss. Contentment. Satisfaction.”
Other books by Isherwood are “ Book of Plough” and “The Farm West of Mars.”
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