Clabbered Dirt, Sweet Grass

by Gary Paulsen, Ruth Wright Paulsen, Joy Avery, et al.

Book Overview

Paulsen captures a vanishing way of life and offers a lyrical tribute to the american farm. "Paulsen's prose is realistic and down-to-earth....Ruth Wright Paulsen's paintings are an invitation to pause and imagine...a delight" (Christian Science Monitor). Illustrations by Ruth Wright Paulsen.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0151181012
• ISBN13: 9780151181018
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P
• Length: 120 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Sweet reading

Anyone who has ever been raised on a farm, or spent summers on a farm--as I did as a child--will find evocative reading in Gary Paulsen's memoir/prose poem. And, it is so lyrically written that even if you've spent all your days in the city, the reading of this piece will refresh your soul. A treasure!

Practical environmentalism...

Mr. Paulson writes a beautiful, touching, book that reflects his undying love of nature and the land. Take the time to read the forward to the book that explains the motive behind it's writing. Picture the two men sitting next to the deceased workhorse as the farmer unravels his story of his life and his land. Contrast the respect for the land and nature's cycles of "old time" farmers, versus the "forced yields" of today's factory farms. I have read this book several times and each time I gain a greater knowledge and respect for the wonders Mother Earth reveals, if you treat her with respect and take the time to listen. I have recomended this book to dozens of people - city and country folk alike - and all have been glad that I did so. Every person who has felt a link or calling to the earth should read this book.

A lyrical work that captures four seasons of farm living.

Clabbered Earth, Sweet Grass is a lyrically written nonfiction work that describes four seasons of living on a farm. This is the farm that housed three and more generations under one roof; the self-sufficient farm of the turn of the century. Hard work and little money, but strong family ties, and a closeness to the earth that quite literally is life and death- that is the farm Gary Paulsen is writing about.I enjoyed Gary Paulsen's style; both the lyrical style and the look back to what "farm" once meant. There is both the sweet grass and harsh fact in this work. I think I have a better feel for the farms that were fading away in the country when I grew up in rural Virginia. If I do, it comes from reading this book. It is a great read.

From cover to cover, beautiful, compelling and true

A lyrical tribute to a vanishing way of life, Clabbered Dirt, Sweet Grass describes farming life in the early 1900s. This book is magical. It reads like a lovely song that stays on your mind long after it is sung.

This is one of my absolute favorite books.

I love Gary Paulsen's prose/poetry. I recommend reading it outloud in order to hear (and almost smell) the sites and sounds of the farm. Give it to a "city kid" or one from the farm. It is a wonderful gift. cf