Survey Results: The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure

Our readers were almost evenly spread out on when or if they would be purchasing a copy of The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure.

Here are the results:

30% said they didn't plan to read it
25% said had pre-ordered it, while another 25% said maybe
20% of our readers said they would buy it once it's out

The majority of our readers not opting to purchase the book surprised me. The majority of the reviews on Amazon have been favorable. I'm one of those people who usually buys anything to do with Little House on the Prairie or Laura Ingalls Wilder anyway, but I think this is such a new idea in the Laura World that it would be of great interest to many.

Thanks for participating in our survey. We'll have a new one coming soon.

Book Review: The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure

I believe every fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder, whether that person is a fan of the books, the TV shows and movies, or both, has a Laura story: the moment when she discovered Laura, connected with her, and how it changed her life. Wendy McClure shares her story with readers in The Wilder Life:  My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie.

A senior editor for Albert Whitman & Company, McClure brings the reader through her journey as an adult of rediscovering these beloved classics from her childhood.

A year after the death of her mother, McClure's eye catches the yellow spine of Little House in the Big Woods in her apartment. She picks the book off the shelf and begins reading. Her boyfriend, Chris, brings home a new set of the Little House books, and together they read, explore "Laura World," and embark on a trip by car to visit the many Laura Ingalls Wilder homesites across America.

The Wilder Life is both touching and irreverent. The author's lifelong obsession leads her on this terrific journey into a world that is familiar, yet, altogether new. From tracking down a "crock and dash" churn so she can make butter like Caroline Ingalls, to wading in Plum Creek; from purchasing numerous sunbonnets, to meeting girls competing in the Laura-Nellie Look Alike Contest at the Wilder Pageant in Walnut Grove, Minnesota; and from a surprise during her trip to De Smet, South Dakota, to the meaning found in a visit to the Wilder farm in New York, readers will enjoy following McClure's travels.

This is the kind of book that you have to consider as a whole. There are moments when it feels like McClure is poking fun at the whole "bonnethead" obsession and some of the people she meets along the way. She occasionally uses words that were not made for family TV back in the 70s. She also has her own vision of what faith meant to the Ingalls family versus how it was portrayed on television in Little House on the Prairie and the 2005 mini-series of the same name.

But when you take those moments and blend them into the entire narrative, you come up with a funny, engaging, and moving look into the impact Wilder's books had on McClure's life, and how Wilder's legacy continues to touch the lives of people everywhere. I am thrilled to have The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure as part of my Laura Ingalls Wilder book collection.


Title:  The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie
Author:  Wendy McClure
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover (April 14, 2011)
ISBN-10: 1594487804
ISBN-13: 978-1594487804
SRP:  $25.95 (Hardcover)

Will also be available in a Kindle edition and as an audio book.

New Survey: Do you Plan to Buy The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure?

At the Little House on the Prairie forum I belong to, we've been talking about The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure.

This book is due to be released on April 14th and is already available for pre-order from Amazon.

Here is the product description from Amazon:

Wendy McClure is on a quest to find the world of beloved Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder — a fantastic realm of fiction, history, and places McClure has never been to yet somehow knows by heart. She traces the pioneer journey of the Ingalls family—looking for the Big Woods among the medium trees in Wisconsin, wading in Plum Creek, and enduring a prairie hailstorm in South Dakota. She immerses herself in all things Little House — exploring the story from fact to fiction, and from the TV shows to the annual summer pageants in Laura’s hometowns. Whether she’s churning butter in her apartment or sitting in a replica log cabin, McClure is always in pursuit of “the Laura experience.” Along the way she comes to understand how Wilder’s life and work have shaped our ideas about girlhood and the American West. The Wilder Life is a loving, irreverent, spirited tribute to a series of books that have inspired generations of American women. It is also an incredibly funny first-person account of obsessive reading, and a story about what happens when we reconnect with our childhood touchstones — and find that our old love has only deepened.

Publisher's Weekly gave The Wilder Life a starred review, saying, "Readers don't need to be Wilder fans to enjoy this funny and thoughtful guide to a romanticized version of the American expansion west."

Our new survey asks if you plan to purchase a copy of the book. I will be adding this to my Laura Ingalls Wilder collection. How about you?

New Book about Laura Ingalls Wilder Due out in 2010

According to the Janaury 12, 2009 issue of Publisher's Weekly, Riverhead--a division of Penguin Group--has acquired the rights to Wendy McClure's new book, The Wilder Life. It's a first person narrative that explores Laura's life and work.

The author made a brief mention of the book at her blog, which you'll find here.

I love it when I get a chance to add to my Laura Ingalls Wilder collection!