From spring to winter, eleven-year-old Eldon shares his impressionistic views of life on his family's Minnesota farm. Paulsen's prose shines with a poetic beauty which contrasts ingeniously with his realistic description of Eldon's unglamorous world of mud and muck and machinery. By tradition the family gathers on long winter evenings to listen to the eldest family member tell stories from his past, a legacy to which Eldon is a proud heir, and the cycle begins anew. (Age 9 and older)

A Newbery Honor Book by the New York Times–bestselling author of Northwind. “A compelling description of farming in a bygone time.” —Publishers Weekly

ALA/YALSA Best Book for Young Adults

ALA Notable Book for Children

Judy Lopez Memorial Award for Children’s Literature

Following the turn of the seasons, eleven-year-old Eldon traces the daily routines of his life on a farm and his relationship with his older brother Wayne. During the winter, with little work to be done on the farm, Eldon and Wayne spend the quiet hours with their family, listening to their Uncle David’s stories. But Eldon soon learns that, although he has lived on the same farm, in the same house with his uncle for eleven springs, summers, and winters, he hardly knows him.

“It is the palpable awareness of place and character that is unforgettable. Paulsen, with a simple intensity, brings to consciousness the texture, the smells, the light and shadows of each distinct season. He has penned a mood poem in prose.” —School Library Journal

“More a prose poem than a novel, this beautifully written evocation of a Minnesota farm perhaps 40 years ago consists of portraits of each of the four seasons, along with four brief stories told by old Uncle David.” —Kirkus Reviews