Blog Tour: Pintsized Pioneers at Play by Preston Lewis #giveaway #historical #youngadult #nonfiction #rabtbooktours @prestonlewisaut @RABTBookTours

 

Homemade Frontier Fun and Danger written by Preston Lewis and Harriet Kocher Lewis

Young Adult Nonfiction

Date Published: 11-04-2025

Publisher: Bariso Press

Pintsized Pioneers at Play: Homemade Frontier Fun and Danger explores the forgotten world of how kids lived, laughed—and sometimes limped—through their childhood years in the Old West.

While their parents settled the land, these pintsized pioneers explored it, creating their own adventures with homemade toys, daring games, wild animal encounters, and risky escapades. This engaging sequel to the award-winning Pintsized Pioneers: Taming the Frontier, One Chore at a Time shines a spotlight on the joys and perils of play in a land still being tamed.

From exploring the prairie and wrangling critters to celebrating frontier holidays and watching traveling circuses, this book reveals how children carved out fun and entertainment in a rough-and-tumble world. Learn how railroads and mail-order catalogs brought new toys, how schools and churches doubled as social hubs, and how a simple game could end in laughter—or injury.

Written for young adults but fascinating for readers of all ages, Pintsized Pioneers at Play is packed with history, heart, and a hint of danger. Written at a tenth-grade reading level perfect for curious minds, Pintsized Pioneers at Play includes a glossary of related terms.

Perfect for fans of Western history, educators, homeschoolers, and lovers of untold American stories!

Interview

What was your main drive to write this book? 

 After my wife (Harriet Kocher Lewis) and I retired, we looked for something we could do together. I had been writing for decades and we decided we would look for something we could do together. We decided to start doing writing projects ourselves and publishing them on our own. We established the Independent publisher Bariso Press and began doing books together.

We were inspired to write Pintsized Pioneers: Taming the Frontier, One Chore at a Time after seeing TikTok videos of Millennials complaining about having to take jobs or about having to get to work on the company’s schedule not their own or to dress a certain way. It seemed like they didn’t find the same satisfaction and rewards in work that both of us had as young adults and then parents. So we did a book to show how easy they had it compared to frontier youth.

Once we published Pintsized Pioneers, we decided we would look at the other part of childhood life—PLAY—to give a more complete look at the frontier life of children. What surprised us was not only the activities frontier children turned to, but how dangerous play could be on the frontier.

What do you hope readers will learn by reading this book? 

 First, we hope they understand how easy we have it today, compared to during frontier times. Second, that the ingenuity of children is greater when they don’t have so many toys and electronics to occupy their little minds. And finally, that play has always been essential to childhood development and adult success.

Did you do much research when planning this book? We did about six months of research in both our western Americana library and on newspapers.com. The material is out there, though it takes time to find it and then organize the findings into a readable narrative.

Did you have any main people who helped you in the process of this book or influenced you to write it?

 We’re a two-person team, and we helped each other with the research, writing, editing and production.

How long did this book take you to write from initial thought to hitting publish? 

 It took about six months to research, two months to write, a month to edit, and four months to produce for distribution.

Do you have plans to write more about this topic or new topics? 

 I think we are about done with looking at children on the frontier. We are exploring the possibility of the a book on the corollary between Old West values and biblical principles.

 

About the Author

 

 Preston Lewis is the award-winning author of more than sixty western, historical, juvenile, and nonfiction works. In 2021 he was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters for his literary achievements. The Will Rogers Medallion Awards named him the 2025 recipient of the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the literature of the American West.

Western Writers of America (WWA) has honored Lewis with three Spur Awards, one for best article, a second for best western novel and a third one for YA nonfiction in 2025. He has received eleven Will Rogers Medallion Awards (seven gold, two silver and two bronze) for written western humor, short stories, YA nonfiction, short nonfiction, and traditional Western novel.

Harriet Kocher Lewis is a retired physical therapist and PT educator. As an assistant clinical professor of physical therapy at Angelo State University, she taught documentation and scientific writing among other topics as the department’s coordinator of clinical education.

After retirement she became the publisher of Bariso Press and in that capacity an award-winning author and editor. Books she has edited have earned a Spur Award, Will Rogers Gold and Bronze Medallions for YA nonfiction and western humor, a Literary Global Book Award for cookbooks, and an Independent Author Award for western nonfiction. Other books she has edited have been finalists for Spur Awards in juvenile nonfiction and for Independent Author Awards for both memoirs and humor.

Kocher Lewis is co-author with her husband of the Spur Award-winning Pintsized Pioneers: Taming the Frontier, One Chore at a Time and three books on artificial Intelligence, all published by Bariso Press. They live in San Angelo, Texas.

 

Contact Links

Website

Publisher

Facebook

Twitter: @prestonlewisaut

Goodreads

Instagram: @barisopress

Purchase Links

https://mybook.to/PinsizedPioneersatPlay

Amazon

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