December Featured Books of the Month

Back in the early 90's--when I didn't have gray hair--I picked up an eight book set by T.L. Tedrow called The Days of Laura Ingalls Wilder.I did not know at the time that this series was considered controversial. That Roger Lea MacBride, the heir of Rose Wilder Lane, and Laura Ingalls Wilder biographer William Anderson had come out against the books. All I remember from those days is that I was totally captivated by these eight books that provided a fictional life for the famous children's author and her family.

Released in 1992 by Thomas Nelson Publishers, according to this article, Tedrow was also trying to put together a television deal to produce a series based upon the books.

I haven't read these books since I first bought them; and I wonder now that I have taken an interest in the real life of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family, if I would enjoy these books as much as I did when they first came out over 15 years ago.

I am featuring these books in December for a couple of reasons: I would like to know how many people own them or have read them, and what your opinion of them is regardless of whether you've read them or not. Is this pure historical fiction? Is it a rip-off of the original books? After hearing about them would you read them?

Here is the list of books in order:

Missouri Homestead
Children of Promise
Good Neighbors
Home to the Prairie
The World's Fair
Mountain Miracle
The Great Debate
Land of Promise

Wikipedia offers a synopsis of each book in the series and briefly mentions the controversy surrounding the books. Amazon has a few sellers who offer a boxed set of books 1 - 4, and the full set is available on eBay, as are single copies of each book.

May Featured Book of the Month

Little House on Rocky Ridge is the first book in Roger Lea MacBride's eight-book series of Rose Wilder's life: moving to Missouri, growing up on Rocky Ridge Farm, going to school, and leaving Missouri to spend a year with her Aunt Eliza Jane Wilder Thayer in Louisiana. The last book of the series, Bachelor Girl, chronicles Rose's journey to San Francisco, where she became one of the many women who earned her own way by taking a job outside the home.

The first chapter of Little House on Rocky Ridge starts off with Mama and Papa (Laura and Almanzo Wilder) deciding to leave De Smet, SD to travel to The Land of the Big Red Apple in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri.

The journey was a tough one, even though their friends the Cooleys came with them. And when Manly and Bess (Almanzo and Laura) arrived in Missouri and finally settled on a little farm to purchase, they discovered the hundred dollars Laura had hidden inside her writing desk--all the money they had--was missing!

But once the money was found, they paid a visit to the banker and bought the little farm with the rocky terrain that they christened Rocky Ridge Farm. Then they really got down to work and made it a real farm.

Originally published under the umbrella of Little House The Rocky Ridge Years in 1993, by the time Book 7 - On the Banks of the Bayou and Book 8 - Bachelor Girl came out in 1998 and 1999 respectively, the series was titled The Rose Years.

Roger Lea MacBride, Rose Wilder Lane's only heir, went to painstaking lengths to ensure that this series was as close to the original Little House books as possible. Those efforts are more than evident to readers; and it is my opinion that of all the other books about Laura's relatives, The Rose Years comes the closest in style and tone to the work of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

This series had two illustrators - David Gilleece and Dan Andreasen. While both men had their unqiue style, they also managed to illustrate the books in a way that left the reader feeling like she was in familiar territory with the Little House books that were illustrated by Garth Williams.

Little House readers will love finding out more about Rose Wilder and Rocky Ridge Farm in Little House on Rocky Ridge.

February Featured Book of the Month

Many biographers write about Laura Ingalls Wilder, but few discuss her life in its historical context as well as John E. Miller. In Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder, Miller focuses on the Wilder's years in the Land of the Big Red Apple--Mansfield, Missouri--from 1894 to 1957.

Through the use of Wilder's unpublished biography, letters, newspaper articles, and other doumentary evidence, Miller discusses how Laura Ingalls Wilder the pioneer and farm wife became Laura Ingalls Wilder the author.

Miller discusses Laura's relationship with her daughter Rose, Laura's writing career prior to the publication of her Little House series, and her life on the farm, to build a complete picture of Laura, and shows how Laura's personal life and experiences shaped her books.

For all these reasons and more, Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder by John E. Miller is February's Featured Book of the Month.



I own the hardcover version of this book, but a paperback version with a new cover was released in 2006.

January Featured Book of the Month

Well, since it's half-way through January I thought I might post this month's featured book from my Laura Ingalls Wilder collection.

On the Way Home is one of my favorites. This book is Laura's account of the Wilders' journey from De Smet, SD to Mansfield, MO where they would settle at Rocky Ridge Farm and live out their remaining years. Rose is just seven years old and has been living with her grandparents because both her parents have been stricken with diphtheria. Then her father suffers a stroke and never regains his full strength. With these hardships and crop failures, the Wilders decide to move on and settle in the Land of the Big Red Apple.

On the Way Home is filled with Laura's observations from the Wilder's travels where she shares the sites, the weather, the day's events, and the people they met. In Rose's introduction--which sets the scene for the book--she talks of how Laura made daily notes in a little "5-cent Memorandum book". These notes are what became On the Way Home. Maintained in the same diary format as the original notes, this book will make an excellent addition to your Laura Ingalls Wilder Library.

December Featured Books of the Month

We're getting ready for Christmas here. The trees are all up and only one is waiting for decorations. The porch and the front of the house are strung with lights and the stockings are hung by the fireplace, so St. Nick can come anytime.

We're going to feature two books in December because I can't think of one without the other.

A Little House Christmas complies some of the Christmas stories from Laura's Little House books into a lovely, large hardcover that collectors will certainly enjoy.



From Christmas in the Big Woods of Wisconsin to the day Mr. Edwards delivered presents so that Santa didn't have to cross the creek, to the chapters of Christmas on Plum Creek where Laura received red mittens, the white china box, and the fur cape and muff off the tree at church, each story is just as special as when you first read it in the Little House books.

The illustrations by Garth Williams have been colorized to make this book an extra special treat for Little House fans, and also includes the words and music to Merry, Merry Christmas! by Mrs. T.J. Cook.

The jpeg of the cover art can't possibly do it justice, as Williams's illustration of Laura receiving her rag doll, Charlotte is encircled by a wreath of holly.

While A Little House Christmas shares the Christmas stories of Laura's early days, A Little House Christmas, Volume II travels east to Malone, New York to share the story of Christmas at the Wilder farm when Almanzo was a boy and the aunts and uncles and cousins were coming to dinner.



Then the book travels to the shores of Silver Lake, where Laura and her family are living in the surveryors' house, and on to Christmas in De Smet, SD, where the blizzards seem like they will never end and the trains won't run again until spring. And finally, we get to read the story of Almanzo's surprise return visit on Christmas Eve in These Happy Golden Years.

Again, collectors will find this large hardcover a welcome addition to their Little House library. The green cover is even more striking than the red from the first one and the holly wreath encircles a picture of Ma fastening the little blue coat with the swan's-down collar on Grace and tying the swan's-down hood over her golden hair.

Little House fans will enjoy these books year after year, and remember why Laura Ingalls Wilder's books continue to gain new fans so many years after they were first published.

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.

Featured Book of the Month

Anyone who knows me can tell you just how much I love Christmas. We sing Christmas carols all year long and almost every single room in our house is decorated in some way for the holidays. So, now that it's October, I feel safe in making this next book the Featured Book of the Month.

Some of the most wonderful moments in the Little House books tell us about the Christmas holidays spent with family and friends. From the Christmas in the Big Woods when Pa made the decorative shelf for the China Shepherdess to Mr. Edwards bringing presents to the Ingalls girls so Santa wouldn't have to cross the creek, from the horses that Santa brought to the Ingalls Family on Plum Creek to the boughten cap and jack-knife Almanzo received as presents in Farmer Boy, from the Christmas barrel that arrived once the trains were finally able to get through in The Long Winter to Almanzo's surprise return in These Happy Golden Years, each of these stories will tug at your heart, fill you with the joys of the season, and remind you why Laura's books attract new fans year after year.

The cover on this book is simply gorgeous. The stunning gold that contrasts so nicely again the red background, is repeated on the bound edge and Garth Williams's illustrations have been brought to life in color to add a special touch to A Little House Christmas Treasury. My husband bought this for me last year as a surprise Christmas gift and it remains one of my favorite books of the season.

Featured Book of the Month

There are new titles coming out about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family all the time. It makes it hard for a writer with an interest in sharing Laura's story to come up with a unique idea that will be attractive to publishers. But that's exactly what Laura Ingalls Wilder biographer, John E. Miller did with Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little Town: Where History & Literature Meet.

As a review by Library Journal says, "Taking concepts such as place and community, freedom and control, and love and affection, Miller considers how they operate in Wilder's novels of prairie life..."

The amount of research Miller put into this book is evident and there are almost twenty pictures, maps, and diagrams--some of which I had never seen before.

Focusing on Wilder's By the Shores of Silver Lake and Little Town on the Prairie, Miller proves how Laura's novels are just as historically valid as nonfiction accounts of the time period because these are Wilder's experiences as a young pioneer girl growing up on the prairie--living history.

Other interesting portions of this book include:

* Miller's discussion on the controversy over Rose Wilder Lane's involvement in writing the first eight novels of the series

* The similiar historical contributions of Harvey Dunn and Laura Ingalls Wilder, though Dunn was a painter and Wilder a novelist

* And fact and interpretation in Wilder's novels

All this and more makes this one of the most interesting Laura Ingalls Wilder biographies I have ever read.

Featured Book of the Month

I'm posting August's book of the month early because we're heading off to Cape Cod on August 8th. Donald Zochert's, Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder is the first biography I ever read about Laura and her family.

While dry from a writing perspective, it remains, to me, one of the best non-fiction accounts of Wilder's life from The Big Woods of Wisconsin to the years she shares with Almanzo and culminating with her death.

What I truly enjoy about Zochert's Laura is that it opens with a mention of Laura and The Big Woods, but then moves back in time to provide a history of the Ingalls and Quiner families. Zochert also gives the reader a brief glimpse into Almanzo's childhood; but since he is a man and Laura a young woman by the time Almanzo is introduced, not much of Almanzo's life before living in De Smet, SD is written about.

Laura Ingalls Wilder enthusiasts will recognize many of the names mentioned in this book: Reverend Edwin Alden, LaFayette Bedal, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Boast, Ida Brown, Mr. Edwards, Edward (Cap) Garland, Mr. Hanson, Genevieve Masters, Nellie Owens, and many Ingalls and Quiner relatives. You read of the "years of sunshine and shadow" as Laura and Almanzo almost die of diphtheria and then Almanzo suffers a stroke--which forever takes away his strength; the loss of their baby boy in 1889, who lives only twelve days and is buried without a name; and the kitchen fire that burns their house to the ground.

But there will be happy times at Rocky Ridge Farm: Laura writing articles for the Missouri Ruralist, the prosperity of the farm, the success of their daughter Rose, and the popularity of the Little House books--which have forever emblazoned the names of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family on many hearts. Readers will also find several appendices with important dates, information on all the Little Houses, and a discussion on the truth of the Little House books.

To end this feature of Donald Zochert's Laura, I will share Zochert's final words from this biography of a woman who changed the face of children's literature forever, and who continues to gain new fans all over the world every day:

"Laura closed her eyes. Now is now. She wished they could go on and on, forever."

Featured Book of the Month

Well, I totally missed June and we'll be gone to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for part of July, so this will be June/July's featured book of the month. Discussion came up at the Dean's Divas Yahoo Group about Nellie Owens--one of the three girls Laura Ingalls Wilder used to create the character of Nellie Oleson in On the Banks of Plum Creek. This led me to dig out the William Anderson booklet, The Walnut Grove Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Once again, Laura Ingalls Wilder historian William Anderson brings his readers right into Laura's world with a short booklet about one of the places Laura lived during her life. Actually, thanks to a map included in the front of this booklet, readers discover that the Ingalls family lived in Walnut Grove two times during their travels before settling in De Smet,SD.

The booklet begins with an introduction to Laura Ingalls Wilder, Almanzo, and their daughter Rose. On Page 11, we find out that Laura had no plans to write another book after These Happy Golden Years. Laura and Almanzo were enjoying a modest, but comfortable life on Rocky Ridge Farm, venturing out in their Chrysler when it suited them.

Then it moves on to Plum Creek and Walnut Grove when Laura lived there, talking about how the railroad caused an influx of homesteaders into Walnut Grove, including the Ingalls family. Anderson shares all about their lives in Walnut Grove, the churches and businesses, and some of the townsfolk. During their time in the area, the only son of Charles and Caroline Ingalls was born, Charles Frederick.

Anderson follows the Ingallses travels to Burr Oak, IA and back to Walnut Grove after the death of their son, mentions the new people who had moved to town, and the old acquaintances they caught up with upon their return. This is where the reader hears more about Nellie Owens and her family.

As in numerous other accounts, we hear about Pa's itchy feet and his desire to move west. The Ingalls family is stricken with another tragedy: Mary becomes ill and is left blind. So Pa moves to De Smet, SD. The final words from this section coming from Laura's own hand that were recorded in On the Banks of Plum Creek.

The last three sections of this booklet are dedicated to how Laura took her memories and turned them into the classic children's book, On the Banks of Plum Creek, how Walnut Grove pays tribute to Laura, and illustrator Garth Williams's visit to Walnut Grove and Plum Creek.

Following the format of his other booklet, The Story of the Ingalls, Anderson includes an Appendix with additional information for the reader.

The most interesting part of this booklet for me was being able to view versions of Laura's manuscripts (long-hand and typewritten). As with all of Anderson's books and booklets, The Walnut Grove Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder makes the perfect addition to your Laura Ingalls Wilder library.

Other booklets by William Anderson:

The Story of the Ingalls
The Story of the Wilders
Laura Wilder of Mansfield
A Wilder in the West (about Eliza Jane Wilder)
Laura's Rose: The Story of Rose Wilder Lane
The Horn Book's Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Iowa Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder

Featured Book of the Month

Starting in May we are going to feature one book a month that is by or about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family. We'll begin with a short booklet by Laura Ingalls Wilder biographer William Anderson.

The Story of the Ingalls is only 43 pages long (including appendices), but it is packed with tons of information, rare photos, and a map of the Ingalls' travels. The book is now in its ninth printing.

It begins with a brief history of the Ingalls and Quiner-Holbrook families, then moves on to the years that the Ingalls family traveled, and speaks of how they came to settle in De Smet, SD. It discusses their lives in De Smet and chronicles the lives of every member of the Ingalls family. In April of 1932, the first book in the now famous Little House series was published, Little House in the Big Woods and this booklet also mentions Carrie's and Grace's writing. Strangely, this book does not end with Laura's death, but with Carrie's passing and Laura's acknowledgement to her readers that, "of all the people I wrote about, I am so far as I know the only one left."

The first Appendix includes excerpts from Grace's diary and the second Appendix has pictures of the Ingalls and Quiner-Holbrook families, along with birth dates, marriage dates, and dates of death.

I can't say I learned a lot new about Laura from this booklet, but I did learn more about the lives of the other Ingalls family members.


Other booklets by William Anderson:

The Story of the Wilders
Laura Wilder of Mansfield
A Wilder in the West (about Eliza Jane Wilder)
Laura's Rose: The Story of Rose Wilder Lane
The Horn Book's Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Iowa Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Walnut Grove Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder