Customer Reviews:
 A Keeper!!! October 5, 2008
I read aloud so many parts of this great book to my husband that he just had to read the whole thing for himself - brought back many, many memories - funny how hard times can be remembered so favorably! We highly recommend anyone reading "Little Heathens" who grew up on a farm, in the country or in a small town, or wish they had. Kudos to the author!!
 Back in the day October 4, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is like listening to your grandma (or that old lady in the Titanic movie) telling in a gentle, slow-cadenced voice, about the "old days." Among the topics covered: thrift, medicine, chores, farm food, gathering food, and wash day. The book starts off mildly entertaining, but just like grandma (or grandpa), it gets long-winded. You start to feel bored and restless and wonder how much more you can sit through before you make the move for your coat. You might decide that the next time she repeats, "waste not, want not," you'll excuse yourself and head for the door. But if you stick with this book through the dragging middle, you get to the best parts, the chapters called "animal tales," "racoons and other critters," and "me." She tells how the kids in the family tamed racoons (the racoons slept in bed with them!) The middle part drags in part because of obsolete practices that she describes. It's hard to picture what she's talking about when she tells of the oat shocking procedure, the mechanics of their laundry routine, and the windmill. Parts of these sections read like how-to manuals, including how to propare various meals. Her chapter called "me" is the best, as it has the most human interest, telling a little bit about how she went to college, joined the coast guard, got married, etc. What is ridiculous is that she puts this chapter as an epilogue! Like she's so modest, she can't have a place in the book, it has to be tagged at the end? Like, here's a tiny bit about little ol' me if you care to know...Yeah, thanks, that's why I picked up this book in the first place!
 Interesting and fun September 7, 2008
Certainly not an earth shaking book, but interesting and fun. After I read it for a book club, I bought this copy for my mother, who is the same generation and spent a great deal of time being raised by her older sister and brother in law on their farm in Illinois. She loved it.
Things didn't change much im 20 yeras August 29, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I grew up on a farm in southern Idaho, homesteaded by my grandparents in 1903, The stories are very@simular to the way@we lived, but with the addition of electrcity, I think I shall write a book. But most of all I am reading it om m y Kindle| Marilyn Dakan. Ruidoso, NM
A WONDERFUL SURPRISING AND INTERESTING BOOK August 26, 2008
I am sooooo glad that this book was mentioned to me. My husband loves it as he learned a good trick: he wears expensive leather work gloves, the right hand ALWAYS wore out first, he had 9 left handed gloves laying around. The book told the story of a family that 'made do' with what they had during hard times. Turn the left hand glove inside out and you have a right hander. So many little things that this family did, I can still turn a shirt collar like my gramma taught me. A great and fine story during the Great Depression of an Iowa farm family with several children. I can remember polishing my little Patent leather shoes with Vaseline etc. I can see myself reading this again later on. It is a joy to read.
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