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Pintsized Pioneers at Play book tour stop includes a guest post and excerpt. Explore, share, comment, subscribe, shop Sarandipity’s.
Book Details
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!
Excerpt
Not even Christmas Day could rouse John Taylor Waldorf from his bed at two o’clock in the
morning, but the annual arrival of the circus train in Virginia City, Nevada, was a different matter
altogether. Waldorf and his friends arose early and willingly on circus day when on any other
morning it “would require at least three calls and the threat of a ‘dose of strap oil’ to make me
crawl out from under the covers.”
And why not? The circus provided an entertaining escape from daily hardships, much like
the frontier theater, but much more exciting, as it combined the elements of an art exhibit, a
traveling zoo, a professional band, a parade, a sideshow with oddities, a gymnastic meet with
acrobats and aerialists, an equestrian show, a fashion show with performers and animals in
exotic costumes, an occasional history lesson, and a three-ring environment awhirl with
amazing activities and prankish clowns.
“Several thousand people are in the city from neighboring towns and from the country,”
proclaimed the Evening Kansan of Newton in May 1897. “Circus day is equal to any legal
holiday of the year, and today might have been a legal holiday so far as appearances were
concerned. Nothing is quite of so much interest to everybody as a circus.”
The spectacle offered children a brief glimpse of the world beyond the boundaries of their
farms or small communities. A circus was a childhood delight, allowing frontier youngsters to
see exotic animals like elephants, lions, tigers, camels, zebras, monkeys, and even an
occasional rhinoceros, giraffe, or hippopotamus.
Author Details
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: prestonlewisauthor.com
Publisher: barisopress.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prestonlewisauthor
Twitter: @prestonlewisaut
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/561670.Preston_Lewis
Instagram: @barisopress
Guest Post
I always wanted to write so I went into journalism because I knew I could always get a job because there
would always be newspapers. Boy was I wrong. Sure, newspapers will continue to exist in some
manner, though certainly not in the form or with the influence they had when I went into journalism.
Traditional book publishing is facing the same decline and ultimate fate as newspapers. Sure the major
publishers—the Big Five—will survive but not with the profitability nor the influence they have had in
the past.
Book publishing is going through a transition, best explained by Michael Castleman in his 2024 book The
Untold Story of Books: A Writer’s History of Book Publishing. Castleman divides the history of book
publishing into three distinct periods, each birthed by technological advances and each with its own set
of challenges and opportunities for writers.
The first period—hand-crafted publishing—began with Johannes Gutenberg and his marriage of
moveable type with the printing press, allowing mechanical printing to replace scribes in the replication
of manuscripts. Since there were no publishers, authors controlled the fate of their books if they could
afford to pay for their publication. This period lasted through the end of the 19 th century.
Industrial publishing replaced the first period as the benefits of industrialization and mass production
were applied to book publication for the bulk of the 20 th century. The dynamics of industrial publishing
led to the rise of book publishers, supplanting authors as the controlling entity.
With the rise of digital publishing at the start of the 21 st century, the book industry entered the third
period identified by Castleman. This era became sales- and distribution-centric through Amazon and
Ingram Content Group. I would argue that digital publishing has returned more of the power to authors
to regain control over their works, if they opt to self-publish.
Digital technology and print-on-demand advancements now make independent publishing possible for
writers to publish their own books as my wife and I have done with our award-winning Bariso Press
imprint. To regain that power, authors can also utilize a hybrid publisher and pay for the services they
must outsource. Castleman postulates that a professional package for publishing services can run from
$5,000 to $10,000 or more.
The other and more economical option—though it may require a steep learning curve—is for authors to
do it all themselves, writing, editing, proofing, page layout, cover design, cover copy, promotional
materials, copyrighting, LCCN registration, and pricing.
That is the option we have chosen and have had successful outcomes. We handle all of the production
and distribution components through Kindle Direct Publishing for e-books and IngramSpark for print
editions. We do outsource our marketing and social media services, which allows us to focus entirely on
the formulation, writing, editing, and production of our books.
Since 2021, we have published a dozen books on varied topics, some of which we would never have
attempted through a traditional publisher. To date, nine of our books have earned 18 awards, including
a Spur Award from Western Writers of America and a Will Rogers Gold Medallion Award, among others.
Besides the satisfaction of producing a quality product, we publish what we want without gatekeepers;
we set our own publication schedule; we don’t have to go through the woke nonsense of sensitivity
editors; and we turn out books faster than a traditional publisher can. On top of that, we retain the
rights to all our works with more flexibility for handling subsidiary rights.
While this may not be the future of publishing, it is certainly right for us and has provided a wonderful
opportunity for us to publish books that meet our vision rather than that of some distant publisher.
(For more on Preston Lewis or Bariso Press, check out their websites at prestonlewisauthor.com and
barisopress.com)
Purchase Links
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Pintsized-Pioneers-Play-Homemade-Frontier/dp/1964830125/
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Pintsized%20Pioneers%20at%20Play
Giveaway
$5 Amazon Gift Card + eBook Copy
Tour Schedule
November 4 – Nana’s Book Reviews – Spotlight
November 5 – On a Reading Bender – Review
November 6 – Books 1987 – Spotlight
November 7 – Tea Time and Books – Spotlight
November 10 – My Bookmarked Reads – Spotlight
November 11 – A Life Through Books – Interview
November 12 – Texas Book Nook – Review
November 13 – Lisa’s Reading – Spotlight
November 14 – Always Reading – Excerpt
November 17 – My Reading Addiction – Interview
November 18 – Crossroad Reviews – Spotlight
November 19 – Sarandipity’s – Guest Post
November 20 – The Indie Express – Review
November 21 – RABT Reviews – Wrap Up
