Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!




"Thanksgiving dinner was good. Pa shot a wild goose for it. Ma had to stew the goose because there was no fireplace, and no oven in the little stove. But she made dumplings in the gravy. There were corn dodgers and mashed potatoes. There were butter, and milk, and stewed dried plums. And three grains of parched corn lay beside each tin plate.

At the first Thanksgiving dinner the poor Pilgrims had had nothing to eat but three parched grains of corn. Then the Indians came and brought them turkeys, so the Pilgrims were thankful.

Now, after they had eaten their good, big Thanksgiving dinner, Laura and Mary could eat their grains of corn and remember the Pilgrims."--On the Banks of Plum Creek


Wishing you and your family and happy, healthy, and safe Thanksgiving!

Friday, November 21, 2008

Main Street Theater to Present A Little House Christmas




Main Street Theater in Houston, Texas will be presenting A Little House Christmas from November 11th through December 19th. Based upon Laura Ingalls Wilder's classic children's book Little House on the Prairie, the audience is encouraged to join "Mary and Laura Ingalls in this Holiday classic as they learn the true meaning of friendship and the Christmas spirit!"

Visit their website at http://mainstreettheater.com/ or call the Main Street Theater's ticket office at 713-524-6706 for more information.

New Website for Little House on the Prairie, a New Musical




Due to the overwhelming popularity of the Little House on the Prairie Musical, plans are in the works for a North American Tour in 2009. If you go to www.littlehousethemusical.com, you'll find a temporary website that allows you to input your email address so that you can receive updated news.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Little House DVDs Ban in Finland



Just when you thought you heard the craziest thing ever, comes the news that children of Finland are banned from watching Little House on the Prairie . According to this article from USA Today--and several other online articles--because NBC's Universal Pictures refused to pay astronomical amounts of money to have the series reviewed, the Little House on the Prairie DVDs will have a sticker that reads "Banned for under-18s".

Unbelievable!

Eau Claire Children's Theatre Presents "A Little House Christmas"



The Eau Claire Children's Theatre (ECCT) in Wisconsin will be presenting "A Little House Christmas" on Friday, December 5th beginning at 7:30 PM at North High School, 1801 Piedmont Road, Eau Claire, WI.

Event Description:

Join the Ingalls family, Pa, Ma, Laura and Mary, their neighbor, Mr. Edwards, and even Mrs. Oleson and prissy Nellie for this holiday treat presented by Eau Claire Children's Theatre. Based on the beloved books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, this stage adaptation combines the best holiday stories from the "Little House" books and brings them together just in time for the start of the holiday season.

For more information you may visit this site.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Almanzo and Fried Apples n' Onions



I found this neat food blog called the Gourmanderie, which spoke of Farmer Boy and the tremendous amount of food that the Wilder children ate...especially young Almanzo. It also provided a link to a recipe for Almanzo's favorite food: fried apples n' onions.

What I thought was so interesting is that this blogger mentions that Laura Ingalls Wilder describes food the most in Farmer Boy and contributes that to Laura living through periods of near starvation growing up. Barbara Walker, the author of The Little House Cookbook, made a similar comment on Dean Butler's new documentary, Almanzo Wilder: Life Before Laura.

Here's a link to the entire article if you're interested.

Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life (South Dakota Biography)




I heard about this book through Google Alerts and I was wondering if anyone owns it and can tell me more about it. The title is Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life by Pamela Smith Hill.

It has three 5-star reviews on Amazon, but some of the comments have left me on the fence about whether I should buy it.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Featured Book of the Month




This is where it all began. Had it not been for Rose Wilder Lane asking Mama Bess to put her childhood memories down on paper, the field of children's literature may never have known much about Laura Ingalls Wilder.

After losing their investments in the Stock Market Crash of 1929, and considering that so many of her family members including Ma, Mary, and her beloved Pa had passed on, Laura sat down to write the first manuscript of her childhood memories of living in the Big Woods of Wisconsin. According to Donald Zochert's Laura, in 1931 when editor Virginia Kirkus from Harper's read the manuscript on a train ride home to Connecticut, she was so engrossed in the material she missed her station. She knew she held in her hands "the book that no depression could stop."



Harper published Little House in the Big Woods the following year and Laura Ingalls Wilder became an overnight success. The collaboration between Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane churned out seven additional titles: Farmer Boy (1932), Little House on the Prairie (1935), On The Banks of Plum Creek (1937), By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939), The Long Winter (1940), Little Town on the Prairie (1941), and These Happy Golden Years (1943). Roger Lea MacBride discovered Laura's final manuscript with Rose's belongings after her death in 1968. This manuscript became known as The First Four Years when it was published by HarperCollins in 1971.



But without the success of Little House in the Big Woods during the height of the Great Depression, Laura's other childhood memories and the young life of Almanzo Wilder may never have been shared with millions of children the world over. As we prepare to celebrate the feast of Thanksgiving with our families, may we also give thanks for the little girl who grew up on the prairie and later captured her cherished memories in a series of books that continues to gain fans every day.