If you would like a book that tells you about a period in history and is an entertaining one to read, Grasshopper Summer is a book that does both very well.  It’s about Sam White, a boy whose parents move from Kentucky to the Dakota Territory in the 1870’s.  Sam leaves a comfortable home and his grandparents and all his friends.  Where is his family going?   His father wants to move them to the newly opening Dakota Territory.  The father wants to acquire new farmland and build his own home, rather than continue to live on his wife’s father’s farm in Kentucky.  The family is reluctant to leave the only home they have ever known.  With Sam, you experience the trip in a covered wagon, the search for a place, and the building of a sod house to live in before bad weather arrives.  The writing is so good, you really live the experiences along with Sam.  There’s the fear of Indian raids, of prairie storms, and, of all things, an invasion of grasshoppers that threatens all the crops and even the grass for the cows and horses. 

Grasshopper Summer was a popular hardback book, but is now in inexpensive paperback form.  The author is Ann Turner and the new May 2000 edition is published by Aladdin Paperbacks.  The cost is $4.99.