Reviews for A Prairie Boy's Summer

The average rating for A Prairie Boy's Summer based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-12-15 00:00:00 Sunil Massey Now while in many ways, William Kurelek's A Prairie Boy's Summer is actually and indeed very much similar to his A Prairie Boy's Winter in general set-up and scope, and therefore should likely be regarded and approached as a companion piece (with twenty full page, full colour summer and for the majority of the post school scenarios summer farming themed paintings accompanied by textually heavy but always interesting and enlightening descriptions based on William Kurelek's own farming family boyhood on the Canadian prairies of the 1920s and 1930s), what has always struck me in A Prairie Boy's Summer with regard to both Kurelek's narratives and illustrations is that for farmer boys such as William and his brother John, summertime is in NO WAY EVER vacation time, but is a time for basically around the clock chores and much hard, often backbreaking toil (both on the fields and in the barn). And in fact, aside from the painting of William and other local boys swimming (and stark naked, mind you) in the local swimming hole, basically ALL of pictorials of A Prairie Boy's Summer that do not deal with school, that take place come so-called summer vacation has commenced do present and feature scenarios of both field work and necessary farmyard chores (and as such, A Prairie Boy's Summer is actually and indeed very much different from A Prairie Boy's Winter, where aside from the required daily barnyard tasks, due to the fact that one does not and cannot work the fields during winter, there actually is also much more time and leisure to spend on such past-times as snowball fights, building snow forts, skating and the like). A great introduction to both summers on the Canadian prairies and also (and for me even more importantly) to the amount of work that farming generally always entails and demands (and from ALL members of the family), A Prairie Boy's Summer is highly recommended for both young and old (although I do leave the necessary caveats that Kurelek's text is most definitely wordy and dense, although still always approachable and uncomplicated in style and vocabulary choices, and yes, I guess I also should point out that the episode depicting and describing William and other local boys frequenting the swimming hole does indeed both textually and illustratively describe and show brief instances of general male nudity and that the boys have to keep their eyes open as sometimes their swimming place is visited by curious girls on their bicycles).

Review # 2 was written on 2017-12-14 00:00:00 Joey Carnicom Just delightful, in every way. The illustrations and the text are equally illuminating and enchanting.