Sandra Rollings-Magnusson teaches sociology at MacEwan College. Her research interests include political economy, sociology of the family, social policy, and gender and ethnic studies. She is currently researching the economic, political, and social lives of pioneer families on the western prairies. Rollings-Magnusson lives in Edmonton.

"If you have ever indulged in a flight of fancy about the romantic simplicity of pioneer days, then you must read Sandra Rollings-Magnusson's book. It will set you right in no time....Her book is absolutely fascinating, and that's because Rollings-Magnusson understands that if the devil is in the details, so is the beauty. Fully aware that the best and most revealing history is to be found in the lives of everyday folks, she has mined an incredible motherlode of journals, letters and memoirs to draw a riveting picture of life as it really was lived on the Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan prairies.... The author's emphasis is on child labour on the prairies, and these pioneer children were spared little of it....Rollings-Magnusson has written a marvellously fresh account of the lives of prairie pioneers in the most delightful way possible--by giving those long-gone folks the freedom to tell the stories of their daily lives in their own words." Naomi Lakritz, The Calgary Herald, August 2, 2009

• The Division of Labour in the Family Farming Economy; Attitude Toward Child Labour & Children's Assistance in Pre-Production Work; Productive Labour; Entrepreneurial Labour; Subsistence Labour; Domestic Labour; Conclusion; Index.