Title: The Life and Times of a Pioneer Family
Author: Cheryl Hammack
Publisher: Gold Touch Press
ISBN: 978-1-955347-57- 0
Pages: 74
Genre: Historical fiction
Reviewed by: Nicole Olson
Hollywood Book Reviews
Author Cheryl Hammock’s novel The Life and Times of a Pioneer Family begins with a young man named Rusty. He is a hardworking man who is dedicated to his work as a blacksmith. One day he is introduced to Shari – they fall in love and get married. The book surrounds their adventures as pioneers and as a growing family.
Hammock captures the difficulty which came with that period of history extremely well – her characters show grit and perseverance. They do everything it takes to succeed, even if that means going far away to find work and spending a great deal of time apart. Shari is blessed with a wonderful group of friends. Each of them has her own special talent and they use these talents to help each other as well as build the community of Kansas City, Missouri.
While it is easy to imagine Kansas City as a bustling place with highways, huge bridges, a baseball stadium and sky scrapers – Hammock brings readers back to when Kansas City was nothing but plains and prairie. Wild land ready to be tamed. In fact, it is the very characters in her book that help Kansas City emerge from the dust of the depression.
This book is an easy, fast read which is perfect for leisure time. Young adults can greatly benefit from reading this book – not only to learn about history but also to see how easy life in the 21sf century is. It’s easy to hop into a car and travel to any destination. Our food is grown and cultivated for us; all we have to do is go to the store to buy it. Hammock’s novel paints a picture not only of struggle, but of dedication. She perfectly captures the American dream of grit and hard work leading to prosperity. She shows us just how much we take for granted every day; she humbles her readers. At the end of this book, I felt grateful for living in America and also that this land has already been tamed and cultivated so many hundreds of years ago.
Hammock effortlessly takes readers back to Pioneer teams. Following the journey of a pioneer family, readers gain new historical knowledge and encounter various common tropes of that time period. Her beloved characters make the story fun to read. In many parts of the book, I found myself rooting for them to succeed or overcome any hardship in their way. The Life and Times of a Pioneer Family is a fun and entertaining historical read.