'Just after World War I, and following a summer with a reg-tag harvesting crew and a season as a grain hauler in western Kansas, Ralph Moody decided to devote his time, small savings, and considerable enthusiasm to the livestock business-a fascinating, often grueling, but more often rewarding occupation.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Final Book of an Incredible Series,
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This review is from: Horse of a Different Color (Audio CD)
Horse of a Different Color is the final book (#8) of the Little Britches series. My family has truly enjoyed all the books! I tell people that these are like Little House books but for boys (although my daughter has loved them just as much as my son). Our all-time favorite was the first one Father and I Were Ranchers (The Little Britches Series Book 1) [UNABRIDGED]. We enjoyed the narration of Cameron Bierly. He did a great job with all of the voices, only having trouble with Ralph's voice in the last three books as Ralph wasn't a kid anymore and he couldn't seem to decide whether to give him a New England accent or not. Other than that, he was great.
The story picks up where Ralph left off in The Dry Divide The Dry Divide with Ralph in Kansas (although we don't hear any more about the characters in The Dry Divide). Ralph has to give up on his wheat hauling business as new automobiles called trucks can do the job better and cheaper than his horses and wagons. So Ralph returns to his roots with horses and cattle and decides to learn the livestock finishing (feeding) business from another man in the area who knows all there is to know about feeding but is careless, loaded with debt and knows nothing of good business practices. They make a good team until the livestock market collapses and he and the other man lose all their money winding up in debt to the bank. The other man declares bankruptcy and moves his family after a terrible flood, and Ralph has to decide if he should do the same or find a way to work off the debt. When he hears about a railroad contract to rebuild the tracks washed away in the flood, Ralph is determined to win the contract to supply meat to feed the crew even though he knows little about running a slaughterhouse and butchering business. Again and again Providence shines on Ralph as he meets the right people at the right time. But he doesn't just think about himself but all of the other farmers in his town who are suffering and makes sure his deals benefit all. It is ingenious how he figures out how to make his business a win/win for all the folks in his town to get out from under some of their debt and feed their families well at the same time. He has some good help from neighbors that will warm your heart. A father figure (Carl Henry) advises him well throughout and the "busy body" switchboard operator (Effie Simons) is a colorful character who treats him like a son and keeps his business going with her phone lines. During this time Ralph gives up on his strict diabetic diet and actually gets better. Also, at the end, we finally get to see Ralph making plans to marry a sweetheart from the Boston area that he courted somewhere between the books The Fields of Home The Fields of Home (The Little Britches Series) and Shaking the Nickel Bush Shaking the Nickel Bush (The Little Britches Series). He had not written about that relationship in any of his previous books so he tells their story here. Before she agrees to marry him, she makes Ralph agree to give up ranching and move to the city so their children will have good schooling. They start out in Kansas City, MO and later move to California in the 1940s. I have looked up Ralph's Biography and it seems he and Edna had 3 children - two sons, Charles (after his father) and Andrew and a daughter, Edna. He went to work for Procter & Gamble and later B/G Foods, Inc. a national restaurant chain. Ralph started writing when he took a college writing class to help his teenage daughter with her high school writing class. His instructor encouraged him to expand his first paper into a book. We're glad she did! Ralph Moody not only gives us a picture of life in the early part of the 1900's, but also the character and grit and determination that we unfortunately don't see as much of today. Before Social Security and unemployment payments, people had to pull themselves up and do what they could and this series shows us a good portrait of that. It should be required reading in every home in America. It took us over a year to get through all 8 books, listening to them in the car. My children (ages 7 and 8) are still listening to them over and over in their rooms. I hope the values stay with them as I know the stories will.
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