Take a trip back to 1938, to the "olden" days, with Sonja. Discover what it was like to attend school with students from first to eighth grade in one room with one teacher. Learn about living on the eastern Colorado plains miles from other people without electricity or running water. Sense Sojna's fear as she dodges rattlesnakes. Feel her love for the abandoned lamb she raises. Laugh with her as Daddy squirts milk into her mouth while he's milking a cow. Share her concern as she helps Daddy rescue a freezing calf. Picture her wonder when Grandpa takes her to an old-fashioned general store. Feel her frosty nose when they go to the icehouse. Predict the trouble she's in when she "drives" the pickup into a fence. Marvel in the stories Grandma tells her about growing up in Sweden and her fear when Daddy tells her about getting shot at by thieves. Enjoy the changing of seasons as Sonja celebrates an old-fashioned Christmas, fears a raging blizzard, and welcomes the greening of the prairie in spring. Imagine Sonja's feelings as she looks forward to having fun during summer vacation and then have it destroyed when her best friend gives her bad news.