Pintsized Pioneers at Play by Preston Lewis and Harriet Kocher Lewis
PINTSIZED PIONEERS AT PLAY:
Homemade Frontier Fun and Danger
By Preston Lewis & Harriet Kocher Lewis
Young Adult / Nonfiction / History
Publisher: Bariso Press
Pages: 218
Publication Date: 4 November 2025
SYNOPSIS
Discover the Wild Side of Frontier Childhood!
Pintsized Pioneers at Play: Homemade Frontier Fun and Danger explores the forgotten world of how kids lived, laughed-and sometimes limped-through their childhood years in the Old West.
While their parents settled the land, these pintsized pioneers explored it, creating their own adventures with homemade toys, daring games, wild animal encounters, and risky escapades. This engaging sequel to the award-winning Pintsized Pioneers: Taming the Frontier, One Chore at a Time shines a spotlight on the joys and perils of play in a land still being tamed.
From exploring the prairie and wrangling critters to celebrating frontier holidays and watching traveling circuses, this book reveals how children carved out fun and entertainment in a rough-and-tumble world. Learn how railroads and mail-order catalogs brought new toys, how schools and churches doubled as social hubs, and how a simple game could end in laughter-or injury.
Written for young adults but fascinating for readers of all ages, Pintsized Pioneers at Play is packed with history, heart, and a hint of danger. Written at a tenth-grade reading level perfect for curious minds, Pintsized Pioneers at Play includes a glossary of related terms.
Perfect for fans of Western history, educators, homeschoolers, and lovers of untold American stories!
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Preston Lewis and Harriet Kocher Lewis co-authored three books in the "Magic Machine Series" published by Bariso Press: Devotionals from a Soulless Machine, Jokes from a Humorless Machine, and Recipes from a Tasteless Machine. They reside in San Angelo, Texas.
Preston Lewis has published more than 50 fiction and nonfiction works. The author and historian’s books include traditional Westerns, historical novels, comic Westerns, young adult books, and historical accounts. In 2021 he was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters for his literary accomplishments.
His writing honors include two Spur Awards from Western Writers of America and three Elmer Kelton Awards from the West Texas Historical Association. He has received ten Will Rogers Medallion Awards, and in 2024, he earned an inaugural Literary Global Independent Author Award in the Western Nonfiction category for Cat Tales of the Old West.
He is a past president of Western Writers of America and the West Texas Historical Association, which named him a fellow in 2016.
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Harriet Kocher Lewis is the award-winning editor and publisher of Bariso Press. Titles she has edited have been honored with Will Rogers Medallion Awards, Spur Finalist designations, and Independent Author Awards.
Lewis concluded her 26-year physical therapy career as the inaugural clinical coordinator for the physical therapy program at Angelo State University, where she taught technical writing and wrote or edited numerous scientific papers as well as a chapter in a clinical education textbook.
REVIEW
Book
Two in a series about the lives of children in the mid to late 19th
century, Pint-sized Pioneers at Play is a deep dive into the lives of kids who
lived and played in the American West. Culled from newspapers, letters, books,
memoirs, the book tells the story of how children spent their time when not doing
chores for their parents.
Each
chapter covers a different topic from toys for boys and girls, how they were
made or purchased and what kids played with at that time. Schooling is also covered,
and the author describes what was often no more than a one room schoolhouse,
freezing in the winter and blazing hot in the summer months.
Children,
free to roam and often without adult supervision can have the greatest of
adventures but they can also endanger themselves and others. The number of
fires reportedly caused by children ‘playing with matches’ was astonishing as
was the damage they did. Other than fires, the kids of the 19th century found a
zillion ways to injure themselves and others including the use of firearms,
drownings and falls.
The
authors also cover the major holidays of Christmas and the Fourth of July in
great detail which I really enjoyed!
Although
marketed as a young adult book, I think it would appeal to adults of all ages
who enjoy reading about the history of the US. This would also be a great
reference book for historical fiction writers and history teachers! Highly
recommend.
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