| Author |
Reading Room:  What is your favorite Laura Ingalls Wilder book?  |
|
|
mikesgirl
True Blue Farmgirl
3659 Posts
Sherri
Elma
WA
USA
3659 Posts |
 Posted - Feb 04 2006 : 5:21:27 PM
|
I was unpacking my books into my bookshelf in our new cabin and came upon my collection of Laura Ingalls Wilder books. I remembered each one and how much pleasure they brought me. The first time I was introduced to them was in fourth grade when the teacher would read them aloud to us every day. I was hooked. I was just wondering which one is your favorite and why. Mine is "The Long Winter". I just love hearing how the family made do during that horrible, cold, winter when no supplies or firewood was available. (I may use it as a resource book when we move into the cabin! I hear it gets to 30 below in our part of Montana sometimes!)
Tell us your Little House stories! |
|
|
Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl
11381 Posts
Jenny
middle of
Utah
USA
11381 Posts |
Posted - Feb 04 2006 : 6:41:14 PM
|
The Long Winter is my favorite too..and the one that stuck with me long after I read it as a child! Over the years I have actually had some long winters...not as bad as theirs of course, but it made me realise that things could be alot worse, and what is important is family.
Jenny in Utah
It's astonishing how short a time it takes for very wonderful things to happen...Frances Burnette
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
 |
|
|
cajungal
True Blue Farmgirl
2349 Posts
Catherine Farmgirl Sister #76
Houston Area
Texas
2349 Posts |
Posted - Feb 04 2006 : 7:08:03 PM
|
I like all of them...it would be hard to pick just one. When my girls were younger, we used the books as our main schooling...if Ma made butter, we made butter. About the only thing we didn't do was make the balloon out of the pig bladder!!
I tend to think about Laura's life a lot...trying to figure out what she would do in a situation I may be experiencing or just thinking about all she went through. I have it so much easier than she ever did!
Blessings
Catherine
One of the best compliments from one of my daughters: "Moma, you smell good...like dirt." |
|
|
|
Julia
True Blue Farmgirl
1949 Posts
Julia
Shelton
WA
USA
1949 Posts |
Posted - Feb 04 2006 : 7:33:57 PM
|
I like Little House in the Big Woods and Long winter. All of them are so great! When I was at Bible College,many moons ago I met 2 girsl who were couisins who came from Faith, SD. Yep! They were Ingalls. I was more excited about their ancestory than they were.
"...the setting sun is like going into the very presence of God." Elizabeth Von Arnim |
|
|
|
NicoleG
True Blue Farmgirl
92 Posts
Illinois
92 Posts |
Posted - Feb 04 2006 : 7:55:23 PM
|
I like all of them too but my favorite is probably the first one "Little House in the Big Woods". I love the very beginning when she says something like "as far as you could go in a day or a week, there were woods and the animals that lived in them"
That would be wonderful..... |
|
|
|
CountryGirl85
True Blue Farmgirl
225 Posts
Laura
Oswego
IL
USA
225 Posts |
Posted - Feb 04 2006 : 8:40:39 PM
|
| I hadn't read any of them until a few weeks ago! I'm totally hooked on the Little House TV show and am just now starting to read the books! Right now I'm reading Farmer Boy. Wow, I would be sooo excited if I found out I were an Ingalls! Heck, I'm excited that my name is Laura Elizabeth! |
|
|
|
Fabulous Farm Femmes
True Blue Farmgirl
792 Posts
Diane
Lakebay, Tacoma
WA
792 Posts |
Posted - Feb 04 2006 : 11:44:48 PM
|
I have been addicted to her books since I was in 4th grade. She passed away right before I was born, so I used to pretend I was her reincarnation (hey, I was a kid with a big imagination, okay?)
BUT my paternal ancestry is all from South Dakota same area and about the same time Laura's family lived there. I like to think maybe we are related or friends or something!
Can't pick a favorite book.All of them are. |
|
|
|
cajungal
True Blue Farmgirl
2349 Posts
Catherine Farmgirl Sister #76
Houston Area
Texas
2349 Posts |
Posted - Feb 05 2006 : 04:45:06 AM
|
Hey Laura Elizabeth, you mentioned the tv series. Did you know you can purchase all the seasons on dvd? We started out a few years ago with buying a season at a time. My girls had never seen the show but had read the books. It was funny how they would critique the differences between the show and the books.
At some point we had all the sets that had been released. It was awful waiting for the next set. Sometimes it was months before another set was released. We'd just watch the others over again. We recently purchased season 9. It's been our family routine to watch an episode after supper. It's fun to get mad at Nellie all over again!
I've bought some of the books in the series "The Caroline Years" but we haven't read them yet. We also have a couple of the ones from Rose's series....not read yet, either.
Blessings
Catherine
One of the best compliments from one of my daughters: "Moma, you smell good...like dirt." |
|
|
|
mikesgirl
True Blue Farmgirl
3659 Posts
Sherri
Elma
WA
USA
3659 Posts |
Posted - Feb 05 2006 : 1:03:27 PM
|
| Have any of you gone to DeSmet and visited her home and school? I believe that is where the book "On the Shores of Silver Lake" is set. The surveyor's house is there as well as her parents house when they were older. VERY interesting and well done. |
|
|
|
YiberryYadeeKarin
True Blue Farmgirl
343 Posts
Karin
Spokane Valley
WA
USA
343 Posts |
Posted - Feb 05 2006 : 5:21:04 PM
|
I've been to DeSmet!!! It was twenty years ago (eeghads!) and I was living in South Dakota for the summer (I was a park ranger at Wind Cave in the southern Black Hills). The nine year old neighbor girl and I did an overnight trip there. It was GREAT!
I also drove through (by?) Walnut Grove, Minnesota a couple of years later. Not much there, at least at that time, from what I remember.
When I was in DeSmet I got some more biographical books about the Ingalls family. I think they were written by Richard Anderson (or something like that). I need to unearth them as my new co-worker is also into the prairie/farm life and is a big Laura Ingalls fan, too.
Karin |
|
|
|
CountryGirl85
True Blue Farmgirl
225 Posts
Laura
Oswego
IL
USA
225 Posts |
Posted - Feb 05 2006 : 7:11:05 PM
|
It's funny because I was just looking at the DVD sets today at the mall! It's on 2-3 times a day, but they don't show them in order! So I would really like to get the DVDs. And I'm definitely going to read all the books! I've never been to any of Laura Ingall's homes, but would like to!
Much love,
Laura Elizabeth |
|
|
|
sleepless reader
True Blue Farmgirl
1022 Posts
CA
USA
1022 Posts |
Posted - Feb 05 2006 : 7:12:25 PM
|
I think Long Winter (brrr...) and/or ALL of them!! My daughter and I have read them through twice. First, for "fun", second time (two years later) as her history unit for third grade.
Catherine, I have bought a few of the "Caroline Years" books, but they haven't caught us the way the LH books did!
Sharon
Life is messy. Wear your apron! |
|
|
|
SmallTownGirl
True Blue Farmgirl
117 Posts
Rose
USA
117 Posts |
Posted - Feb 06 2006 : 10:11:07 AM
|
| If you are ever in MN you should check out the farm in Walnut Grove and the museum. I think there is even a road named after her. In the summer they have a pagent, festivals and camping which is really neat. |
|
|
|
Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl
11381 Posts
Jenny
middle of
Utah
USA
11381 Posts |
Posted - Feb 06 2006 : 12:29:16 PM
|
Welcome Small town girl!!! Neat to have another Laura enthusiast here!!! I really encourage you to go to the welcome wagon section and introduce yourself..we would all love to meet you...I am glad you found us!!
I used to live in Minnesota and dang it all..never did get to go to Walnut grove!!
Jenny in Utah
It's astonishing how short a time it takes for very wonderful things to happen...Frances Burnette
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
|
|
|
Fabulous Farm Femmes
True Blue Farmgirl
792 Posts
Diane
Lakebay, Tacoma
WA
792 Posts |
Posted - Feb 06 2006 : 12:41:23 PM
|
| Have any of you Farm Girls been to the house in Mansfield MO? That is high on my wish list along with DeSmet!! |
|
|
|
CountryGirl85
True Blue Farmgirl
225 Posts
Laura
Oswego
IL
USA
225 Posts |
Posted - Feb 07 2006 : 9:13:36 PM
|
| Just had to mention, today is Laura Ingalls Wilder's birthday! Happy Birthday! |
|
|
|
thehouseminder
True Blue Farmgirl
361 Posts
USA
361 Posts |
Posted - Feb 08 2006 : 09:16:16 AM
|
I loved all of them.
"The Long, Cold Winter" gives me chills everytime I read it, even in the Summer!!!
"Farmer Boy" makes me want to eat. She spends so much of the book describing food. I read once that she was fascinated by Almanzo's upbringing because he didn't experience the "hardscrabble" she did and never went to bed hungry.
"Little House in the Big Woods" more than any of the other's seems, to me, to capture the feelings and emotions of a little girl.
But, my favorite is "On the Banks of Plum Creek." For me it brings back memories of all the camping we did when my parents let us play outside from dawn to dusk and we never tired of picking and eating wild fruit, fishing with our homemade fishing poles, and just lying on our backs and watching the clouds go by.
Lucinda
When we were young, there were moments of such perfectly crystallized happiness that we stood stock still and silently promised ourselves that we would remember them always. And we did. --Holly J. Burkhalter , "Four Midwestern Sisters' Christmas Book"
|
|
|
| |
Reading Room: What is your favorite Laura Ingalls Wilder book? |
|
What is your favorite Laura Ingalls Wilder book?
