# Are there any Boy's Pioneering time children/YA books? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 4, 2005, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-boys-pioneering-time-children-ya-books/311010 "2005-07-04T12:47:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2005, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-boys-pioneering-time-children-ya-books/311010/1 "2005-07-04T12:47:40Z")
It came up in discussion with my cousin who has 7 boys, that neither of us could remember or think of any boys books similar to Little House on the Prarie. Her boys have loved the LHonP series. Can anyone think of anything where it is boy centered? ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2005, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-boys-pioneering-time-children-ya-books/311010/2 "2005-07-04T14:14:21Z")
Gary Paulsen has written several boys surviving-in-the-wilderness type stories, and I think one of them centered on a young boy who traveled west on the Oregon Trail. Aha: I found it on the list. kids pioneer book list There are other promising books on that list. I also remember my son reading a book called The Sign of the Beaver, it was about settlers building a cabin, etc with the help of Native Americans. Johnny Tremain is about a Boston boy in the Revolutionary War rather than a pioneer heading west, but it was such a good book I thought it was worth mentioning. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2005, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-boys-pioneering-time-children-ya-books/311010/3 "2005-07-04T14:35:01Z")
Oooooh! Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2005, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-boys-pioneering-time-children-ya-books/311010/4 "2005-07-04T14:46:45Z")
You know that one of the Little House books is boy-centric, right? There’s a book about the childhood of Laura’s husband. [Farmer Boy](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0064400034/qid=1120488478/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_ur_1/002-3873189-9154412?v=glance&s=books&n=507846). Other good historical fiction about boys: \*\* Gib Rides Home / Gib and the Gray Ghost\*\* by Zilpha Keatley Snyder **Save Queen of Sheba** by Louise Moeri **Jake’s Orphan** by Peggy Brooke and several of the **Dear America** & \*\*My America \*\* books are “journals” by boys set in various historical time periods, too. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2005, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-boys-pioneering-time-children-ya-books/311010/5 "2005-07-04T16:47:44Z")
I’m sure they’ve read it, but **Hatchet** is a great survival story (albeit modern) if they like that aspect of pioneer stories. It’s true, though, all the really famous pioneer kid’s books are about girls. Although there’s no reason a boy can’t enjoy **Caddie Woodlawn** and **Sarah, Plain and Tall**. How about **The Great Brain** and sequels? They’re not really pioneer, but they’re historical - they’re set in Utah at the very end of the 19th century, sort of Tom Sawyer stories loosely based on the author’s childhood with his devious brother. They’re excellent, I’ve just started rereading them because I only vaugely remembered them from childhood. There’s a _lot_ in there that gives it extra meaning now that I’m an adult. ---
**Author:** ![Gail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Gail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gail)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2005, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-boys-pioneering-time-children-ya-books/311010/6 "2005-07-04T17:49:15Z")
I’ve used Elizabeth George Speare’s book _Sign of the Beaver_ in my classroom. It’s about a boy who has to live in a cabinet in Maine for a few months while the rest of the family wait for his mother to have her baby to join him. He makes friends with a native American boy whom he teaches to read. I believe it happens in the early 19th century. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2005, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-boys-pioneering-time-children-ya-books/311010/7 "2005-07-05T17:22:16Z")
> [@Gail](#): > > I’ve used Elizabeth George Speare’s book _Sign of the Beaver_ in my classroom. It’s about a boy who has to live in a **cabinet** in Maine for a few months while the rest of the family wait for his mother to have her baby to join him. He makes friends with a native American boy whom he teaches to read. I believe it happens in the early 19th century. Surely not one under the stairs? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Hedda\_Rosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hedda_rosa/32/1204_2.png) [@Hedda\_Rosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedda_Rosa)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2005, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-boys-pioneering-time-children-ya-books/311010/8 "2005-07-05T18:02:59Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] How about **The Great Brain** and sequels? [QUOTE] I clicked into this thread to suggest this very series. Great books, highly recommend. ---
**Author:** ![easy\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@easy\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/easy_e)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-boys-pioneering-time-children-ya-books/311010/9 "2005-07-05T19:51:26Z")
There’s also **Moccasin Trail** about a boy who gets injured by a bear and lives with Indians for a while. His younger siblings contact him, because they want to move to Oregon and he’s the only one who’s old enough to file a claim (the parents are dead). ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-boys-pioneering-time-children-ya-books/311010/10 "2005-07-06T01:46:58Z")
[QUOTE=Twiddle] [QUOTE=Zsofia] How about **The Great Brain** and sequels? > [@](#): > > I clicked into this thread to suggest this very series. Great books, highly recommend. And if they like the Great Brain they can “graduate” to Papa Married a Mormon, also by John D. Fitzgerald. It’s the grown up story of the life of the Fitzgerald family in Utah. Told by J. D., it details how his maternal grandparents came as converts to Utah, how his Catholic father, a journalist, met his Mormon mother, their elopement, and so on. A lovely moving story about religious tolerance as well, with lots of humor too. ---
**Author:** ![don\_Jaime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b4bc9f/32.png) [@don\_Jaime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_Jaime)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-boys-pioneering-time-children-ya-books/311010/11 "2005-07-06T03:34:17Z")
There’s always _Old Yeller_, _The Yearling_, and _The Adventures of Jamie McPheeters_. ---
**Author:** ![Gail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Gail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gail)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-boys-pioneering-time-children-ya-books/311010/12 "2005-07-06T03:36:36Z")
_Surely not one under the stairs?_ OP by zsofia small cabin…cabinet…works for me :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-boys-pioneering-time-children-ya-books/311010/13 "2005-07-07T02:05:01Z")
Not exactly pioneer fiction, but similar in feel. _Where the Red Fern Grows_ and _The Education of Little Tree_ were excellent books. On topic, _Seven Alone_ by Honore Morrow stuck with me for years after reading it. I haven’t picked that up since I was 15 but I sill remember it. _Little Britches_ was a book I read because my dad said it would “build character” but enjoyed anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Side_of_the_Floyd)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-boys-pioneering-time-children-ya-books/311010/14 "2005-07-07T02:29:12Z")
> [@Sleel](#): > > my dad said it would “build character” but enjoyed anyway. …You’re not Calvin, by any chance, are you? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-boys-pioneering-time-children-ya-books/311010/15 "2005-07-07T04:11:41Z")
I’ll also vote for the “Great Brain” series. Has anyone else read [Jim Kjelgaard](http://home.sprintmail.com/~charterbus/kjelgaard.htm)’s books? Man, I loved them as a kid. They’re outdoorsy stories, many involving boys and dogs; for several years I was determined, thanks to these books, to get an Irish Setter and train it to hunt. I also recall _Kalak of the Ice_, in which the protagonist is a (female?) polar bear. Good stuff; I’m tempted to go seek some of them out myself now. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-boys-pioneering-time-children-ya-books/311010/16 "2005-07-12T05:55:40Z")
> [@DarkSideoftheFloyd](#): > > …You’re not Calvin, by any chance, are you? 😉 Unfortunately, no. I was never that cool and I could only wish to have a father that smart and sarcastic. One of my all-time favorite comics though.