Carolyn Dallmann captures the innocence of a little girl growing up on a farm in a small rural Wisconsin community. Through lessons learned, the love of family, the joys of a close-knit neighborhood, and the real-life challenges of operating a farm, the author offers a charming glimpse of rural Midwestern life in the 1950s and 1960s where a party telephone line was the definition of social media. A gentle read that is sure to entertain.

North Freedom, by Carolyn Dallmann, has a wonderful immediacy, a rawness. The prose is not the work of a professional author, but that of a talented amateur venturing into deep waters for the first time; this seems a strength, a meeting of form and function, giving this memoir a sense of rustic authority that might otherwise be lacking – almost as if it were written in a sort of Wisconsin dialect. The result is a text with the rural authenticity of a Grandma Moses painting. North Freedom is reminiscent of August Derleth’s Walden West but sweeter – imagine Derleth with the addition of a generous dose of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House in the Big Woods. The rural charm and humor of these reminiscences are delightful. Wonderful family photos add to this portrait of mid-20th-century rural Wisconsin.

This book is a gem and joy to read! Growing up in North Freedom, it was delightful to reminisce as well as to learn more about the history of my hometown. Every page brought back pleasant memories of bygone days; days to treasure in my heart.