• Age: 9 to 13
• Grade: 4 to 8

Ten-year-old Patti lives on a farm with her mom, dad and older brother Jamie. She loves the natural world she lives in, and she feels passionately that she is old enough now to be a working member of the farm team, taught the skills and given jobs that really matter. She is always curious about chickens and bees and horses, and how they relate to humans; about grown-ups and why they do and say the things they do; about her friends who live in very different circumstances. Sometimes her adventures turn out well, and sometimes they don’t, but for Patti they all add to what she knows about “life.”

Heather Gardam was originally an English teacher, and obtained a second B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Victoria. She has published essays and articles in the United Church Observer and Cruising World. Her three books, Life on the Farm, Little Guy, and Joan's Summer, originally published by Penguin, were influenced by her experiences as a child on a farm in Ontario, and by her small farm on Salt Spring Island where she and her husband have lived and farmed for thirty-six years. They have three daughters and seven young grandchildren.

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