Hardscrabble by Sandra Dallas - ADVISABLE
Hardscrabble by Sandra Dallas, 240 pages. Sleeping Bear Press, 2018. $16. Content: Language: G; Mature Content: G; Violence: PG. BUYING ADVISORY: EL, MS – ADVISABLE AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE Belle arrives in Mingo, Colorado with her ailing mother and brood of siblings to meet up with their father who has been starting their homestead while they moved from Iowa. Even though Belle is only twelve, Belle and her older sister quickly fall into the mother roll and help around the farm. They befriend a woman homesteader, Lizzie, who is a bright spot in their bleak environment and helps them figure out life on the prairie. When Belle’s mother’s health doesn’t improve, Belle, her father and her sister feel hopeless and have to depend on each other and their kind neighbors to survive. Sandra Dallas does this setting (Midwest) and time period (1910) so well, whether she is writing adult or middle reader. I loved the Martin family and wanted them to succeed and was totally caught