With a compelling childs voice, Greenleaf traces her familys move from a small town in Upstate New York to her grandfathers farm in rural New Hampshire in the 1940s, before mass media had homogenized regional accents and customs. The child experiences this transition with some sadness and rebellion. For the family, it meant going back to the times before electricity and central heating and becoming subsistence farmers. Later, after leaving the farm, like pioneers, they cleared land and built a house. Family adventures and conflicts shape both life and story for the child in this gem of a memoir.