Little House books

[Scout]

i'm rereading the series for the first time in many, many years. i forgot how wonderful they are. the level of knowledge and competence required of successful homesteaders and pioneers in incredible.

while on vacation, i read a biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and that piqued my interest again.

anyone else read the series more than once?

[JuniperLea]

1. I have...

And so has my daughter. She has the full set, plus some others by LIW... and a biography.

[Scout]

2. i knew the books weren't necessarily a straight bio of LIW

but i don't recall knowing that Laura and Almanzo had a baby boy that died not long after birth, which i learned in the biography.

i have the "Little House Cookbook" which is kind of interesting ... author went through the books and did her best to recreate the recipes using authentic ingredients when possible.

i would someday like to take a trip and visit all of the homesites and museums.

[JuniperLea]

4. My daughter keeps talking about taking that kind of trip too...

Cool about the cookbook! I'll need to check that out... I collect cookbooks.

[shraby]

3. Our 6th grade teacher had a period of time during the

day when she would read a chapter of a book to us until the book was done. That was my first introduction to Little House on the Prairie. It was fantastic listening to her. This was waaay back around 1953.

[AngryOldDem]

5. I read them all the time when I was a kid.

Those were the equivalent of "comfort food" for me when I was young. Laura Ingalls Wilder is a national treasure.

I tried to interest my older daughter in them when she was younger, but no go.

[Little Star]

6. I love the series!

Last year for Christmas I gave two of my grandchildren (7 year old sister & 5 year old brother) The DVD series of Little House. (I found a real good deal on the whole series!)

My daughter said it has been the gift that keeps on giving. It has given the family so much enjoyment over the year. Gets everyone talking to each other and looking forward to the next episode. Mother & father are having just as much fun as the kiddies! Daughter says it’s a great carrot/stick to entice the kids with too. lol

For their birthdays I have started getting them each a Little House book and will keep that up until they have them all.

Daughter has asked that this year for Christmas I get the kids some “The Waltons” DVDs.

My oldest grandson (different mother) read/had read to him all the Little House books when he was younger. He loved them and also the quality time he had with his mom with her reading to him or him reading to her.

[SheilaT]

7. I have read that series multiple times

over the years, starting around the time I was eight or nine.

What has been so interesting is that every single time I reread the series I have gotten something different from them. When young, I identified quite strongly with Laura, especially as I was the age that she was in any given book. As an adult, I found I suddenly identified with the parents.

Not only did they need to know how to do an amazing number of things, but I was also at one time struck with how little cash they actually needed to survive. In one of the books don't they trade their horses for a home and some land? At least no money exchange is mentioned, but it's possible that one did occur that Laura was unaware of.

I've been to Laura and Almanzo's home in Mansfield, Missouri twice now, and it is absolutely worth the trip for anyone at all who is interested.

[AmandaMae]

8. they were what first got me interested in history

I read them when I was in 4th grade. All of the other girls got interested in them too and we played "little house" on the playground.

[Sequoia]

9. What was the bio you read?

I never read the books as a child but I like the tv show...when she's little mostly. I know the show doesn't really follow all her real stories though. It's just one of those "feel good" shows.

[Scout]

10. "Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder"

by John E. Miller

i highly recommend her series!

and this bio was pretty good, it's the only one i've read.

[SheilaT]

11. Another biography of Laura

was published some years ago, but it really contained very little outside of what was already in the books.

I've also read "Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder" -- picked it up at the Wilder home in Mansfield, MO, several years ago. It's very good.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. I'm a fan of the books who couldn't stand the TV show

They gave the Ingalls family modern attitudes and an improbable community that was supposed to be in Minnesota but looked suspiciously like wherever all those other Westerns are filmed.

There were things in there that would make anyone who knew American social history cringe. (I'd see the show when I was visiting my parents, because it merited my mother's highest word of praise: "cute.")

For example, there was a show in which an African-American man reminisced about waiting for Santa Claus as a young slave child. Yeah, as if plantation slaves got toys from Santa Claus (who was not widely known in most of the U.S. till the 1880s).

There was another plot line about a Jewish-Gentile marriage, where all was sweetness and light, only in those days. both families would have disowned the couple.

In spite of the supposed frontier setting, no one seemed to work very hard.

[Scout]

13. yeah, i agree, the series wasn't that good

except for the few episodes that they took directly from the books.

it was better in the first year or two, but later on it just got ridiculous.

[raccoon]

14. I read the series as a kid but never got into the TV show. I don't think I've ever seen even one

episode. Oh, wait, yes I did. The one where Laura lost her teaching job over some disagreement about teaching agriculture. Laura was MARRIED at the time, and in those days, married women didn't teach school. They stayed home and did the housework.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. That was true even in the 1940s when my mother started teaching

They made some exceptions for widows, but in most school districts, women had to quit teaching if they got married, and definitely if they became pregnant. (When I was in high school in the 1960s, none of the women teachers had children, and those who did become pregnant were gone by the time they began to "show.")

[raccoon]

16. I wonder what was the logic (?) behind that? Was it that married

women should be at home looking after for their husband and children?

Or, schoolchildren shouldn't see pregnant teachers because it'll start the kids thinking about, how she GOT that way?

Or something else? :shrug: :headscratch: (OK, that's not a smilie, but it should be.)