Logan Pryce Makes a Mess

By Grace Gilmore and Petra Brown

Meet Logan Pryce, an eight-year-old boy whose family hardships are made better by his small-town community in this start to a wholesome series that’s like Little House on the Prairie for younger readers.

It’s 1892 in Maple Ridge, Illinois, and Logan Pryce is worried about his family. His dad, Dale, needs to find a new job because their farm is failing. He may even need to look for work in another city. Logan offers to earn some money by selling his latest invention, but his parents tell him not to worry and that everything will be fine. Then Dale is hired for a temporary job at the general store, and Logan can’t wait to lend a hand! But his eagerness may cause his dad to lose the job he so badly needs. Can Logan’s mistake be fixed in time?

With easy-to-read language and illustrations on almost every page, the Tales from Maple Ridge chapter books are perfect for beginning readers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Little Simon
• Release date: Apr 7, 2015
• ISBN: 9781481426268

Grace Gilmore

Grace Gilmore is a city girl, but she has always been fascinated by farm life. Growing up, she spent many summers riding horses, chasing chickens, and swimming in the creek at her great-grandparents’ farm in the hollows of Kentucky. When she isn’t writing books, she can be found playing the piano, baking cookies, or wrangling various pets. Grace lives with her family in Ithaca, New York.

Book preview

THE FIX-IT SHOP

Logan Pryce picked up a hammer and pounded the tin cup.

The Fox-Away is going to be my best invention ever, he told Skeeter. Skeeter barked and wagged his honey-colored tail. He always agreed with everything Logan said.

Logan leaned closer to the oil lamp and continued hammering. Nearby, the horses munched on their oats and paid no attention. The cows did the same with their hay. The farm animals were well used to Logan and his Fix-It Shop.

The Fix-It Shop was where Logan mended broken things. Sometimes, he even recycled them into new things, like the Fox-Away.

The Fix-It Shop took up an entire stall in the corner of the barn. Logan’s worktable was a wooden board standing on two steady sawhorses. His chair was a blue wooden barrel with the words DICKINSON’S WITCH HAZEL stamped on it.

Logan had lots of raw materials to tinker with. China cups without handles. Mismatched buttons. A cracked butter churn. A cuckoo clock that no longer told the time. The objects spilled out of crates and scattered across the floor.

He had many tools, too. His favorite was a silver pocketknife engraved with a maple leaf design. His father had bought it for him at Mayberry’s General Store.

The barn doors creaked open. A breeze whooshed in, smelling of earth and early spring. The oil lamp flickered for a moment and then grew still. A cat skittered out from behind one haystack and into another.