Young Adult / Nonfiction
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!
Preston Lewis is the award-winning author of some sixty western, historical, juvenile, and nonfiction works. In 2025 he was honored with the Will Rogers Medallion Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the literature of the American West. The Texas Institute of Letters in 2021 elected him to membership for his literary achievements.
Western Writers of America (WWA) has honored Lewis with three Spur Awards, one for best article, the second for best western novel and the third in 2025 for juvenile nonfiction. He has received ten Will Rogers Medallion Awards—six gold, two silver and two bronze—for written western humor, short stories, short nonfiction, and traditional Western novel.
Lewis is a past president of WWA and the West Texas Historical Association, which named him a fellow in 2016. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University and a master’s degree from Ohio State University, both in journalism. Additionally, he has a second master’s degree in history from Angelo State University.
He lives in San Angelo, Texas, with wife Harriet Kocher Lewis.
