The Wide Horizon

Texas Panhandle #2

by Loula Grace Erdman

In this second book about the Pierce family, more than five years have passed since their first moving into the Texas Panhandle. They have learned to live in a primitive sod house and have overcome—and even come to love—the odds that the land presents. Even so, 15-year-old Katie, gentle and artistic, is eager to return to East Texas to be schooled in the finer things that this pioneer country lacks. Then an accident to Grandmother reverses everything! Katie, to her own surprise, finds herself volunteering to stay home to feed and care for Papa, the boys and Carolyn on the farm, while Mama makes the eastward journey to care for her mother. During the next few months, timid Katie encounters one distressful situation after another. Despite fears and setbacks, she resolves to do whatever seems needed. As Katie's confidence grows, so does her interaction with family and new and

Genres: Fiction, Childrens, Historical Fiction

279 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

ERDMAN, LOULA GRACE (1898–1976). Loula Grace Erdman, writer, daughter of August F. and Mollie (Maddox) Erdman, was born on June 8, 1898, near Alma, Lafayette County, Missouri. She attended Central Missouri State College (B.S., 1931) and Columbia University (M.A., 1941). She also studied at the University of Wisconsin, the University of Southern California, and West Texas State College. She subsequently moved to Texas and taught in the Amarillo public schools and at West Texas State College, where she eventually became novelist-in-residence and director of the Advanced Workshop in Creative Writing.

Erdman began writing in the 1930s, and by 1946 about fifty of her short stories and magazine articles had been published, as well as her first juvenile novel, Separate Star (1944), a book about career teaching. In 1946 she won the $10,000 Dodd, Mead-Redbook Award for The Years of the Locust (1947), a novel set in her native Missouri. In 1952 she received the American Girl-Dodd, Mead Award for The Wind Blows Free (1952), the first volume of a juvenile trilogy about a pioneer Panhandle family. She continued the story of the Pierce family in The Wide Horizon (1956) and The Good Land (1959). Room to Grow (1962), a novel about French immigrants who moved to the Panhandle via New Orleans, won her the Texas Institute of Letters Juvenile Award. She received both the Texas Institute of Letters Award and the Steck-Vaughn Award for A Bluebird Will Do (1973). Her other works include A Wonderful Thing and Other Stories (1940), Fair Is the Morning (1945), Lonely Passage (1948), The Edge of Time (1950), Three at the Wedding (1953), My Sky Is Blue (1953), The Far Journey (1955), Short Summer (1958), Many a Voyage (1960), The Man Who Told the Truth (1962), Life Was Simpler Then (1963), Another Spring (1966), Bright Sky (1969), A Time to Write (1969), and Save Weeping for the Night (1975).

Miss Erdman was a member of the Texas Institute of Letters, the Panhandle Penwomen, Delta Kappa Gamma, Kappa Delta Pi, and Phi Kappa Phi. As a career teacher who never considered abandoning teaching even after she gained recognition as a writer, she also belonged to the National Education Association and the Texas State Teachers Association.

Reviews

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

First sentence: Katie Pierce was sure she must be the luckiest girl in the whole Panhandle of Texas. Luckier even than her older sister Melinda who, after five years of waiting, was going to marry Dennis Kennedy in June and go with him to live in Amarillo. Dennis was a real doctor now, driving around the town and the surrounding country, looking after sick folks.

Premise/plot: The Wide Horizon is the middle book in a series. The first book is The Wind Blows Free and the last book is The Good Land. Each Pierce sister has their own novel. Melinda's story was The Wind Blows Free. Caroline's story will be The Good Land. Katie's story is The Wide Horizon.

Katie is the middle sister. Her older sister, Melinda, is literally about to get married when the novel opens. She'll be moving to Amarillo with her husband. This will make Katie the oldest sister still at home. (The twins Bert and Dick are still older. They're seventeen, I believe.) She'll be the one called Miss Pierce. She's soon to go away to school back in East Texas. But life has a way of reshuffling plans. When their grandmother falls and breaks a bone, it is their mother--not Katie--that heads East. Katie will be the woman of the house. The cooking, cleaning, sewing, tending will fall to her. She has watched her mother and Melinda for years--but those chores haven't really been hers. Is she ready to be a woman?

My thoughts: I love, love, love, love, love, love this one. It is a favorite from my childhood. I did not grow up reading The Wind Blows Free or The Good Land. But The Wide Horizon was a book I owned and reread countless times. I loved spending time with Katie both at home and at school. (At home, she's learning to cook and bake. At school, she's given the responsibility of teaching art.) I also love how Melinda's friend, Annie Foster, is sticking around in this second book. Her love story happens in this one!

[Melody · Rating 3 out of 5]

Warm and sweet, but with more than a few egregiously racist references to "Wild Indians", this is still an interesting story. Fifteen-year-old Katie finds herself in charge of an entire household, which seems to careen from calamity to calamity. I liked that Katie struggled, and that she made some serious mistakes. The growth that happens over the course of the book is very satisfying and feels true.

[Sheila Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful pioneer novel about life in the panhandle of Texas. The Pierce family goes through happy times and difficult times by working together as a family. Katie is the star of this book as she takes over household duties while her mother leaves to care for an ailing relative. I was inspired by Katie to try my hand at making a vinegar pie which was a tasty treat for her family.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still reading my way through Loula Grace Erdman, whom I recently discovered after I bought one of her books at an estate sale.

This is the second in the Texas Panhandle series, and I didn't like it quite as much as "The Wind Blows Free," it is charming and evocative.

[Tals · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can I have some icecream? No wait, I don't like icecream.

[Teri-K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second in the Texas Panhandle series, this tells of Katie Pierce, the middle daughter, the year she turns 15. Katie isn't brave like her older sister Melinda. In fact, she's afraid of just about everything - horses, strangers, storms, even the wind that blows across the Texas panhandle where she lives with her family. She prefers staying inside with her music or art, and looks forward to going to east Texas to live with her grandmother and attend the Academy for Young Ladies. Then her grandmother is injured and Katie's mother has to go take care of her, leaving Katie behind. Since Melinda has married, Katie will have to do her best to take care of the rest of the family.

This delightful story follows Katie from cooking her first meal to facing a blizzard, and the reader sees her gain confidence as she realizes courage isn't the absence of fear, but putting fear aside to do what must be done. She also learns to forgive the mistakes she makes and sometimes accept help from others. These stories will please fans of the Little House books, Caddie Woodlawn, and other coming-of-age on the frontier fans.

NB - This book is available to read for free from OpenLibrary.com. Though it's fun to follow the sister's lives in order, it isn't necessary to enjoy the books.

[Sarah Brazytis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Robert was right: "Too bad."

We were no happier with this book than the first in the series, 'The Wind Blows Free'.

Again, the odd, ungrammatical sentences; again, the unreliable characters with constantly changing personalities; and again we really didn't bond with any of the people in the book! While the best authors draw you in and MAKE you love their characters, Loula Grace Erdman leaves you puzzled as to their personalities and unsure whether you like them at all.

As Robert E. Lee once said, "Too bad, too bad."

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book in the Texas Panhandle series. I could see traits of my own family in the characters.