Dune Boy: The Early Years of a Naturalist

The great naturalist, Edwin Way Teale, spent his boyhood holidays and summers at his grandparents' farm, Lone Oak, in Indiana. In Dune Boy, first published in 1943, he relives these bucolic visits and his budding interest in the natural world around him. A loner, often bullied by other children, Teale escaped to the roof of the old house where he gazed at the golden dunes in the distance, and dreamed his own fantastic dreams. The young Teale was fascinated by moths, dragonflies, snakes, and the workings of the farm. He yearned to fly. He tried to hitch a calf to a cart, to ride a pig. He created a "museum" for his collections of arrowheads, stones, and fish skeletons. Most of all, he enjoyed his storytelling, hardworking grandfather, and his book loving, equally hardworking grandmother. He returned to Lone Oak every summer until he was fifteen.