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With the help of her little brother, her best friends, Matteo and Kimana, and, of course, her trusty farm dog, T-Rex, Paige believes she can use her "farm smarts," however sneaky, to try to stop the sale of the farm. She puts makeup on the cows so they look sickly to potential buyers, and she pranks the realtor by releasing a jar of grasshoppers in her car. Her efforts don't stop reality from setting in; her mother and grandfather just don't have enough money to keep the farm running and selling it is their only option. But who will be the new owners, and where will her family go?
Paige finds a new appreciation for the land, animals, and even the barn she once took for granted. One day while roaming in the hay barn, Paige finds a peacock. She's fascinated by the beauty of the bird's plumage but discovers an injured wing among its fancy feathers. Since the bird cannot fly and return home, Paige is eager to nurture it back to health. Her book-smart brother helps her care for the bird and tells Paige that peacocks are symbols of luck, protection, and integrity in folklore and legends.
Shortly after the exotic bird is discovered, a man dressed in a business suit shows up on the farm with his two children and claims ownership of the peacock. Paige is devastated by the prospect of yet another loss and, again, prepares to face an adversary.
Paige is suspicious of him, especially because he's spending a lot time with her mom. But her first impressions are wrong and, like the peacock, his true colors show him in a positive light. He's a journalist looking for a good, human-interest story about their farming community and Paige sees a way to make the farm a solution that will help everyone.
With all the changes and challenges she faces with her family, Paige learns that sometimes the idea of a home is less about place and more about the people you call a family and that asking for help isn't a sign of weakness, but an opportunity for working with others and building strength.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
September 3, 2020 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781629737959
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781629737959
- File size: 1468 KB
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Languages
- English
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Levels
- ATOS Level: 4.6
- Interest Level: 4-8(MG)
- Text Difficulty: 3
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Reviews
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January 15, 2020
A young Idaho girl tries to save her family's farm. Since her father's death, 12-year-old Paige has been taking on all the farm chores, determined to keep her father's regular farming schedule. When her mother and grandfather bring in a real estate agent to try to sell the farm, Paige enlists her younger brother, Scotty, and some friends to try to sabotage the sale of the farm. Simultaneously, a wounded peacock shows up on the farm, which Paige and Scotty secretly nurse back to health. Heartfelt and funny, the story captures the lives of often underrepresented farming families, and though the trope of children scheming to save something beloved that's in peril through hijinks and humor is familiar, it engages in a deeper discussion of the threat development poses to farmland. The story is set on the Shoshone-Bannock Reservation in southeastern Idaho; Paige, who is white, is best friends with Kimana, a Shoshone-Bannock girl who's also her robotics partner, and Mateo, who is Latinx and whose family owns the neighboring farm. All characters are fully realized, and the book offers authentic views of rural kids navigating long distances between friends' houses on dirt bikes and to and from school via bus as well as some very visceral calf birthing. Swore, who lives on the Shoshone-Bannock Reservation, includes brief narratives from two Shoshone-Bannock friends in her author's note; there is no mention of the catastrophic Dawes Act of 1887, which enabled non-Natives to buy property on tribal lands, however. An impressive tale carrying universal themes of grief, change, and letting go. (Fiction. 8-12)COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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February 1, 2020
Gr 4-6-Red-haired and freckled Paige searches for a lost shovel, a symbol of her struggles in dealing with the loss that follows. Paige's life is upside down; her father died some months earlier in a car accident, leading to her mother and Grandpa deciding to sell their family farm. The appearance of a peacock is as startling as its disappearance. A real estate agent becomes the focus of Paige's antagonism, while she is afforded help by a reporter ostensibly there to research farms folding to developers-but who also happens to have an interest in peacocks. The farm is an odd one; while seeming to be focused on potatoes, it also has cattle, horses, pigs, and chickens. There's a greenhouse which features in the loss of a plant entrusted to Paige's care by good friend Mateo, who along with girlfriend Kimana, a member of the Shoshone-Bannock tribe, diversify the cast. Their school bus stops at the Sho-ban Reservation, though Paige is not a member. An 80-acre farm in Idaho seems pretty small for all that this one seems to encompass. Most of the chores and animals are not distinct with the exception of Milkshake, a cow who delivers her calf later than most, requiring intense knowledge and effort from Paige. The ending undercuts most of the message about accepting limitations that Paige has had to learn, but brings in the wish element nicely. VERDICT Despite a lack of focus, this may be a useful mirror for contemporary rural kids, but its characters provide more of the appeal than the busy plot.-Carol A. Edwards, Formerly at Denver Public Library
Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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