Thrashin' Time: Harvest Days in the Dakotas

Thrashin' Time is an undeservedly unremarked slice of Americana posing as a children's book. Chronicling the advent of steam thrashers in North Dakota circa 1886 from the perspective of a 12-year-old boy, this story will delight all model railroaders and live steam operators with its scrupulously researched description of steam tractor ops, along with the pen-and-ink illustrations that range from superb to dazzling. It is a deft exercise in regional writing. It is a food book: the descriptions of the collective meals prepared for the wheat harvesters are worthy of Faulkner. In the end, it is a vivid illustration of American life before automobiles, suburbia, and television, when a day in school was a restful privilege compared to the real demands in the life of the young. Do not get this book figuring to read it aloud to young ears. It's pitched at least at the middle school level.

My 8-year-old son is a machine maniac, and he loved his story of a boy in 1912 helping to harvest wheat in North Dakota by learning to run a steam engine. Lots of info and great drawings of the steam tractor and thresher, plus fanscinating details about life on the prairie. Mom enjoyed it too, and often had a tear in her eye.