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Farm Girl
FARM GIRL, the groundbreaking and critically-acclaimed folklore history by Karen Jones Gowen, is a 2012 KINDLE BESTSELLER FOR CHILDREN "Omitting sensationalized incidents and graphic sexual exploits, the book perfectly captures a young woman's coming of age in the early decades of the 20th century. It concerns real life, relatively ordinary activities, drawn with the precision of a Norman Rockwell painting." --The Omaha Reader Set in the Dust Bowl of the American West, Farm Girl , the true account of a child coming of age on a 1920s Nebraska farm, recaptures an era. Young Lucille Marker experiences survival during the Depression, one of the worst dust storms in history, and finally the disintegration of the close-knit community in which she grows up. Readers who like the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder or Willa Cather will enjoy Farm Girl . Set in the locale of the Willa Cather Nebraska novels, it includes a chapter about the Marker, Cather family connections. Richly photographed throughout with over sixty authentic photos documenting the people and places of the story, this historical, easy-to-read small book is suitable for use in the classroom. " Farm Girl presents a vision of life on a Nebraska homestead during the 1920s and 1930s, told from a child's perspective, and illustrated with photographs of the time." --Quincy Herald Whig " Farm Girl will capture the interest of readers in the photos the book contains and witty recollections Lucille has of her grandparents in Catherton Township." --The Red Cloud Chief "Have you thought about writing your family history, but found yourself stuck from the start? Writing a family narrative can be a daunting task, but Karen Jones Gowen found a way to bring her mother's story to life." --Homespun Magazine
183 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
67 people are currently reading
635 people want to read
About the author
Karen Jones Gowen
11 books131 followersBorn and raised in central Illinois, Karen attended Northern Illinois University in DeKalb and the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. She transferred to Brigham Young University, where she met her husband Bruce, and there graduated with a degree in English and American Literature.
Karen and Bruce have lived in Utah, Illinois, California and Washington, currently residing in Panajachel, Guatemala. They are the parents of ten children. Not surprisingly, family relationships are a recurring theme in Karen's writing.
Karen and Bruce have lived in Utah, Illinois, California and Washington, currently residing in Panajachel, Guatemala. They are the parents of ten children. Not surprisingly, family relationships are a recurring theme in Karen's writing.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
March 7, 2017
I may be overly generous giving this 4 stars but I liked this book. The writing holds it down a little and that's a shame because this is an important book. It recalls the life of a young girl growing up and coming of age in Red Cloud Nebraska in the early 20th century. If that sounds familiar it's because it's the setting of many of Willa Cather's stories. It's the story of Lucille Marker as told by her daughter Karen Gowen. It tells of their struggles with farm life, the hardships, and also the innocent fun of a simple life. It recounts the horrible years of the Great Depression and the dust bowl drought. It's important because we all should be so fortunate to have our family histories told and recorded as well as this one. Many of us, probably most of us, know very little about our great grandparents and beyond. That's why I enjoyed and appreciated this book.
3.5 stars rounded up
3.5 stars rounded up
January 15, 2008
great book, mom!
June 16, 2010
Farm girl was a sweet and wholesome account of girl coming of age on a 1920s Nebraska farm. It defies all traditional story-telling rules and I loved this. It was like I was sitting with my grandma being told stories about her past. I definitely recommend it if you are in the mood to escape the commercial angst and urgency of a plot driven tale. This book is precious. A book well-worth reading cuddled up on your sofa with your dog or cat on a cold winter night.
January 29, 2008
Farm Girl is a series of vignettes which paint a picture of life growing up on a Nebraska farm in the early 20th century. In the interest of full disclosure you should be aware that I am the grandson of the subject of this book.
I rate it only 3 stars because I prefer books with a strong plot that drives the reader toward an inevitable conclusion--but that is not real life.
Real life is closer to Farm Girl: full of rich detail and quiet moments. It's a book that is enjoyed over many sittings; a book that transports one back to a time when debt-averse farmers paid cash for tractors, and the great-grandmothers of today fit snugly in their mother's arms.
I rate it only 3 stars because I prefer books with a strong plot that drives the reader toward an inevitable conclusion--but that is not real life.
Real life is closer to Farm Girl: full of rich detail and quiet moments. It's a book that is enjoyed over many sittings; a book that transports one back to a time when debt-averse farmers paid cash for tractors, and the great-grandmothers of today fit snugly in their mother's arms.
June 23, 2011
Farm Girl is a lovely memior based on the life of Karen Gowen's mother. It would be a great resource book for anyone interested in homesteading, the depression and the dust bowl periods of history. WiDo did a lovely job publishing the book. It has lots of great photos of Karen's mom's family and history.
August 26, 2017
This book reminds me a lot of the things my parents and grandparents lived through and told me about. You have to love the frontier and the homesteaders of yesteryear to like this book. But Karen Gowen has given us a vivid reminder of the hardships of those who opened up the western lands, starting with her ancestors in Nebraska in the late 19th century. My ancestry was in the east, this was the sod-busting pioneers of the West. Both required the same basic stamina and perseverance to make do in primitive conditions.
The narrative is from Karen's mother, and it was probably a good thing that she kept her mother's voice. The chores and routines of pioneer life are universal. These people had struggled continuously to survive, and some of them made a good living out of a place where others simply gave up. The descriptions of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression are vivid and memorable. Grasshoppers blotting out the sun, dust in everything, the boredom for some of prairie farm life. But the human spirit will always prevail for those who persist. This is not for city folk who do not understand the country. This is for those who appreciate the hard work of those who were instrumental in opening up the frontiers.
There are a few repeat scenes in the latter parts. I do not understand the reason for this - appendixes are sometimes not chronological. But a repeat of those harsh scenes probably drives he point home. This was not an easy life to live. Kudos to those (the Markers and the Joneses etc) who lived it regardless.
The narrative is from Karen's mother, and it was probably a good thing that she kept her mother's voice. The chores and routines of pioneer life are universal. These people had struggled continuously to survive, and some of them made a good living out of a place where others simply gave up. The descriptions of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression are vivid and memorable. Grasshoppers blotting out the sun, dust in everything, the boredom for some of prairie farm life. But the human spirit will always prevail for those who persist. This is not for city folk who do not understand the country. This is for those who appreciate the hard work of those who were instrumental in opening up the frontiers.
There are a few repeat scenes in the latter parts. I do not understand the reason for this - appendixes are sometimes not chronological. But a repeat of those harsh scenes probably drives he point home. This was not an easy life to live. Kudos to those (the Markers and the Joneses etc) who lived it regardless.
October 14, 2020
My Aunt Hazel (Harvey) LaPorte, who is 87, asked me to read this book, and I loved it. She grew up in a similar way in Inavale and knew some of the people mentioned in this book. I loved the information about Willa Cather. It makes me want to go back and read My Antonia.
I read chapters of this book to my 8th grade daughter about the country schoolhouse and the young boy who had to hold his nose in the high circle that the teacher drew on the chalkboard. We loved that he erased the circle (when the teacher wasn’t looking) and redrew it lower, so he didn’t have to stand on his tiptoes. My daughter gigged about the stories with the dirty-minded boys. After reading the chapters about the Dust Bowl, we talked about how difficult life would have been during that time.
I read chapters of this book to my 8th grade daughter about the country schoolhouse and the young boy who had to hold his nose in the high circle that the teacher drew on the chalkboard. We loved that he erased the circle (when the teacher wasn’t looking) and redrew it lower, so he didn’t have to stand on his tiptoes. My daughter gigged about the stories with the dirty-minded boys. After reading the chapters about the Dust Bowl, we talked about how difficult life would have been during that time.
July 13, 2019
This autobiography/memoir of a woman's childhood in southcentral Nebraska in the early 1900s is reminiscent of my family's history as Nebraska farmers, although they were in the northcentral sandhills area. The author presents this as a narrative with her mother and it reads much like my interviews with my mother on her early life. It's an enjoyable read, particularly if you are interested in plains/prairie homesteading history. An interesting sidelight is the family's connection with Willa Cather, author of My Antonia, which is one of, if not the, best novel(s) of early Nebraska.
April 6, 2019
Somewhat interesting memoir of life in Nebraska during the late 1800s and the 30s and 40s. The various tellings aren't always chronological. They do become somewhat repetitive. It's a short read so not a book that requires a lot of time to complete.
January 29, 2020
Farm Girl
Thank you retaining her words in this book. I’m happy to read this farm girl’s words as they were spoken and not prettied up for sale. I thought about a dear internet friend as I read this. She came from farm girl stock.
Thank you retaining her words in this book. I’m happy to read this farm girl’s words as they were spoken and not prettied up for sale. I thought about a dear internet friend as I read this. She came from farm girl stock.
August 5, 2017
If you grew up on a farm back in the day, this is a great memory jogger.
August 14, 2017
True story
The book told a story that's interesting about Nebraska, farms sod houses and the dust bowl days. Growing up on a farm.
The book told a story that's interesting about Nebraska, farms sod houses and the dust bowl days. Growing up on a farm.
March 18, 2020
I found this book not to be very interesting and overly long. I didn't even finish it, just didn't bother.
July 14, 2023
A nice bio of the early 1900's Nebraska rural farm life.
September 22, 2013
This is not a novel. There is no plot. The author interviewed her mother about growing up on a farm in Nebraska in the 1920's and 30's during the Great Depression and the dust bowl storms and wrote the memories that came forth in her mother's voice. As such, it is an excellent book.
I couldn't put it down. To hear what it was actually like to live in those times and those circumstances, that is what drew me to the book and kept me reading until I reached the end. I'm sitting here at 1:23 a.m., dead tired, because I kept telling myself "I'll go to bed when I reach the next chapter." Except I couldn't. I found myself reading more and more.
What I really love is the photographs between each chapter. Pictures of the people and the places in the book. That made the book much more personal to me. Also, at the end, there are notes regarding each chapter, and afterwards are things written by the author's grandmother, regarding the things/times talked about earlier in the book. It was really cool to read this in her mother's voice and at the end, read more in her grandmother's voice, someone talked about quite a lot in the book but never actually talked to.
At the very end are more photos. I really liked this book as a piece of history, showing what living then and there was really like. It's not a very long book, but what is there is most definitely worth reading.
If you're reading this on a Kindle, it will consider the end of the book as the part where the author's mother stops talking and will bring up the "Share that you have finished this book" screen and won't let you go past that. You have to go back to the table of contents, then click on Appendix A to get past that screen.
I couldn't put it down. To hear what it was actually like to live in those times and those circumstances, that is what drew me to the book and kept me reading until I reached the end. I'm sitting here at 1:23 a.m., dead tired, because I kept telling myself "I'll go to bed when I reach the next chapter." Except I couldn't. I found myself reading more and more.
What I really love is the photographs between each chapter. Pictures of the people and the places in the book. That made the book much more personal to me. Also, at the end, there are notes regarding each chapter, and afterwards are things written by the author's grandmother, regarding the things/times talked about earlier in the book. It was really cool to read this in her mother's voice and at the end, read more in her grandmother's voice, someone talked about quite a lot in the book but never actually talked to.
At the very end are more photos. I really liked this book as a piece of history, showing what living then and there was really like. It's not a very long book, but what is there is most definitely worth reading.
If you're reading this on a Kindle, it will consider the end of the book as the part where the author's mother stops talking and will bring up the "Share that you have finished this book" screen and won't let you go past that. You have to go back to the table of contents, then click on Appendix A to get past that screen.
January 7, 2016
Here is a great first-hand account of life growing up on the Nebraska prairie in the 1910s and 1920s. It is written as folklorist history, so the writing style reflects the speech patterns and world outlook of that time and place. While that approach turned off one reviewer, I found it put me there with little Lucille as she grew up.
Lucille, in whose voice the story is told, was the granddaughter of the original homesteaders who settled the area, and relates the stories of her grandparents' arrival and early days there, as she heard the tales, and her parents' upbringing. Those familiar with the well-known fictionalized story of Laura Ingalls Wilder will recognize much of the experience of prairie life for the early settlers. Laura was roughly contemporary with Lucille's grandparents, and as a child was part of the pioneer settlements in Oklahoma and Dakota Territories, who also first broke up the sod and cultivated the prairies.
We see here a first-hand view of life of the pioneers, homesteaders, and surviving generations who stayed, taking us into the earliest electrification, plumbing, and telephone connection on that frontier, and from dugouts to sod houses to frame houses. Lucille attended a one-room country school, city high school, and University, commenting on the setting of each. She describes the stock market crash, Depression, long drought and dustbowl, and how they affected her as a farm girl, giving us valuable personal views of life through those times.
Lucille, in whose voice the story is told, was the granddaughter of the original homesteaders who settled the area, and relates the stories of her grandparents' arrival and early days there, as she heard the tales, and her parents' upbringing. Those familiar with the well-known fictionalized story of Laura Ingalls Wilder will recognize much of the experience of prairie life for the early settlers. Laura was roughly contemporary with Lucille's grandparents, and as a child was part of the pioneer settlements in Oklahoma and Dakota Territories, who also first broke up the sod and cultivated the prairies.
We see here a first-hand view of life of the pioneers, homesteaders, and surviving generations who stayed, taking us into the earliest electrification, plumbing, and telephone connection on that frontier, and from dugouts to sod houses to frame houses. Lucille attended a one-room country school, city high school, and University, commenting on the setting of each. She describes the stock market crash, Depression, long drought and dustbowl, and how they affected her as a farm girl, giving us valuable personal views of life through those times.
June 11, 2012
Interesting book - and free on kindle! I enjoy stories about the old west and how people survived it and made it their home. I especially liked the tie-ins to Willa Cather. Apparently the author's family homesteaded in the same area - Read Cloud, NE - as the famous author. (Funny, they said she wore man's clothes and was considered very strange and aloof!)
One drawback is that this book reads more like an oral history report. The author warns you in the beginning that she pretty much tape recorded conversations with her grandma and then wrote everything down. This is great, but it does seem to lack style and purpose. The story wanders and doesn't seem to have a climax or a satisfying ending.
Still good though. It reminds me of "Little House on the Prairie" and makes me want to live in a sod house and churn my own butter!
One drawback is that this book reads more like an oral history report. The author warns you in the beginning that she pretty much tape recorded conversations with her grandma and then wrote everything down. This is great, but it does seem to lack style and purpose. The story wanders and doesn't seem to have a climax or a satisfying ending.
Still good though. It reminds me of "Little House on the Prairie" and makes me want to live in a sod house and churn my own butter!
April 24, 2012
I got “Farm Girl” when it was offered free on Amazon a few weeks back. It’s the first book I have read on my Kindle Fire, and I really enjoyed it. It’s not really a story, but more an oral history of the author’s mom, who grew up in Nebraska during the Depression and Dust Bowl days. Basically, I think the mom shared memories and the daughter wrote them down to form this book. It was interesting to hear about life in our country during that time. There were also many photos, which added a lot to the book. Recommended.
July 8, 2013
This book feels like your sitting down on the front porch for a good visit with an elderly woman, and it rambles in the same way a woman would ramble in telling stories of her youth to her daughter. In this way, the book is exactly what it claims to be, and I enjoyed its authenticity. Seeing the dust bowl years through the eyes of someone who experienced it brings a far greater understanding than just reading about it in a history book.
September 4, 2013
This is a book written by a daughter as a tribute to her mother and her family. It reads exactly as her mother would tell the stories and has some remarkable picturers throughout. With that being said, it is a tribute book and I felt as an intruder on the stories and disconnected. It was not an unpleasant read, but a book meant for members of the Marker family. What a treasured piece for the families.
May 22, 2014
This would have been a good book if properly written. To much bringing in other relatives that are irrelevant, jumping around. Very poorly written, not worth your time to try to read and keep up with non essential characters.
very poorly written. could have been an interesting book if properly written. to much jumping around and bringing in non essential characters. not worth time or effort, thanks for being free, I'd be upset if I paid for this.
very poorly written. could have been an interesting book if properly written. to much jumping around and bringing in non essential characters. not worth time or effort, thanks for being free, I'd be upset if I paid for this.
January 9, 2015
I read 2/3rds of this book, but it took me a long time and I never got overly engaged in the story. I doubt I'll go back & finish it. It had the feel of sitting at great-grandmas house and listening to her tell stories that get side tracked & often have no resolution, but it was interesting to get a clear look at daily life from long ago.
This book could have used a heavy-handed editor. The egregious grammatical errors made my eye twitch.
This book could have used a heavy-handed editor. The egregious grammatical errors made my eye twitch.
January 27, 2021
I liked the book it was written in such a way that it felt like my grandma or great grandma in this case were telling me stories from there childhood but it was very easy to go to that place a picture it. She even mentioned a bohemian community and I would not be surprised if there was some of my relation in that community because everyone on my moms side started in Nebraska and my grandmas dad was from bohemian parents.
June 20, 2013
Reminded me of my grandparents and the stories they used to tell. Some was even like my childhood in the northern woods of Minnesota in the 1980's like a one room school. well it was grades 1-3 in one room and grades 4-6 in another, but still! Bet this was a wonderful experience for mother and daughter to put down and record memories.
February 10, 2014
The book explained some of the hardships that early homesteaders had in our country but it seemed like it was a collection of random memories. I felt that it needed more depth and emotion that could make the reader feel they were experiencing the living conditions of that time. Rather disjointed, it seemed.
September 28, 2012
I stopped reading this for a time because I. found more interesting things to read. Hopefully someday I will go back and finish it. It just didn't pull me in like the description did. I'm disappointed that I didn't enjoy it more.41% complete on the kindle.
August 3, 2015
This book is certainly not for everyone. Most may be bored to tears. But I love hearing about how people grew up before my time, so I really enjoyed this one! Quick, easy, enjoyable read for me, but would not recommend to others.
August 12, 2012
an excellent depiction of a mother's tale of growing up during the stock market crash of '29, the seven long years of the dust bowl...all in a farm in western Nebraska...a story of survival and pride in her heritage. True story.
August 31, 2012
This has been very interesting, especially since I finally read "My Antonia," by Willa Cather. This book is set in "Cather Country." I love memoirs and diaries and this has been a good one! No celebrities (aside from mentioning Ms. Cather), no sex, no drugs, just life.
January 4, 2015
Authors mothers story of growing up in the Depression on a farm. Quite enjoyable and included photos. Reminded me a lot of some of the stories I have heard from my Grandmother over the years. A quick read that spans a generation or two.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews