I Grew Up On A Farm
Alan K. Lewis
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2005 Moo Press
ISBN: 0976680521

Memories of a boyhood outstide Middletown, New York fifty years ago.

With the ever-increasing city sprawl being built where farms once used to thrive, Alan Lewis felt the need to preserve a way of life -- of the American family farmer -- for generations to come.

With Bob Fletcher's engaging collages set around original family photos, with those gummy corners used in old family albums, of Alan & his brother as they go about their chores, fishing with city cousins, working the land & relishing the seasons, I Grew Up On A Farm is a kind & gentle tale of a time long since past in the Hudson Valley of New York state.

When I first got to the Olympic Peninsula, I was gladdened to see farms with fields of corn & potatoes, cows & pigs, chickens & horses still close by the towns. In the ensuing decades all have gone, supplanted by estates of look-alike homes with manicured gardens of imported plants, with no cattle or poultry in sight. So I treasure Alan Lewis' memories & the charming, old-fashioned black & white photos of the 1940s & 1950s Bob Fletcher has set in larger hand drawn pictures.

Whether you have memories of farms or are born & raised city critters, I Grew Up On A Farm is a time capsule for your family to open on days when the surrounding cement has you all hemmed in. & for those of us still living close to the earth, still collecting eggs from nests & carrying slops out to the sty, selling what you grow at your roadside stall, this will be a book your children's children will enjoy.

Very well done & a keeper!
(01/01/06)

Rebecca