WE WERE FREE-RANGE is not cloying nostalgia. Certainly there are passages that will elicit smiles and a few tears (especially among Boomers), but its intent is more ambitious. The author contrasts his child's eye view of the past with childhood today as lived by his grandchildren. In this affectionate recounting of growing up in America, ways of The Good Old Days are not automatically judged best. Rich description gives these stories special poignancy for older generations, but childhood's universal trials will be instantly recognizable to readers of every age. This entertaining portrait of...

In the summer of 1858, young Jedediah P. Carpenter finds himself orphaned and alone on the Oregon trail in the middle of Nebraska Territory. He also finds himself smitten with the beautiful Emma Cooper, three years his senior, who has ridden off into the morning sunrise with the despicable Zeke Jones. Jed's will to reach his family's original destination in Oregon is hampered by his lack of survival skills and the specter of the oncoming winter. Through an unlikely true friendship with a wandering Arapaho, Pete Scares-the-Ponies, Jedediah learns and hones those skills. Instead of heading for...

Eight short stories that span many times and places and do not fit neatly into any genre pigeonholes. Titles include "Reflections in a Plate Glass Window," "Skeet's Revenge," "Raging Against the Machine," "The Snow in Cheyenne," "Seeds of Insurrection," "A Change of Season," "Mutant Trappers," and "After the Flood."