The American West was a far away place to a young girl, only ten years old, living in a small town in Massachusetts in 1947. She had no idea of the changes to her life that would happen after her parents sold all they possessed and turned their old Chevy in the direction of the setting sun. Watching from her backseat window, this child witnessed not only the unfolding of scenery across the United States, east coast to west coast, but slowly developed awareness of the struggle her family faced to provide daily needs in a world of strangers where newcomers were viewed with suspicion. With no work or prospect of it, knowing no one in the far west, her mother and father became, in effect, like the pioneers of a previous era, searching for a place to settle that would satisfy them. A coming-of-age story told through vivid memories of her experiences and the persons she encountered along the way, Cricket in the Grass relates a child's learning of self-reliance.