A week and a half ago, on the long ride to the airport, I was reading The Long Winter aloud to my family when I discovered a lifelong error. That is, an error of mine. Remember when Laura and Carrie are walking in the Big Slough, taking a shortcut home from town where they bought the mowing machine section for Pa? Well, before they stumble upon the Wilder brothers when they finally make it out, they’re convinced they’re lost in the slough. Carrie even says to Laura: “I know. We’re lost.”
Except she doesn’t.
Carrie’s mouth opened a little. Her big eyes looked up at Laura and they said, “I know. We’re lost.” Her mouth shut without a word. If they were lost, they were lost. There was nothing to say about it.
Carrie doesn’t say “I know. We’re lost”; her eyes do.
Fascinating, isn’t it? Did any of you all make this mistake too? Or am I more of a careless reader than most? I know I read fast. Perhaps, I’m now thinking, I read a little too fast.
This is only one of many misconceptions that has been clarified for me as I read various sections of the Little House books aloud. One other that I’ll mention is that Ma never put the tablecloth on the table during meals; it was used only between meals.
Reading aloud is fun! I highly recommend it. I can’t wait to see what else I discover.
Though I can clearly remember that Carrie and Laura got lost in the Big Slough and how they run across the Wilder brothers, I plump forgot that this happened in “The Long Winter” at all – not to mention what Carrie said aloud or with her eyes only.
I wouldn’t care about this memory lapse if I hadn’t read “The Long Winter” so often… or so I thought before this blog entry made me think about my actual reading habits.
Sure, my copy of “The Long Winter” became quite worn over the years and it’s stuffed with bookmarks and notepads galore.
But now I realized that instead of reading *the* book I mostly read *in* the book: flipping through the pages in search for a particular scene or person and reading one or more chapters when I had found it.
Right now I can’t even remember when the last time was I read “The Long Winter” from cover to cover.
So before exploring the fun of reading the book aloud, I should rather rediscover the fun of just reading “The Long Winter”. As the weather here is terrible hot and humid at present, starting right away seems a good idea. ;o)
I’m commenting a little late, but its funny you mentioned this, as this winter I was doing a unit on Farmer Boy with my class and the other 3rd grade class….when it came to the chapter where they are harvesting the ice for the ice house, one of the other teachers commented “Its funny how the kids think that Almanzo actually fell into the water” and I was like “WHAT!? He DOES fall into the water!” and they said he didn’t, so after multiple rereadings and explanations, I had to admit my defeat, that Almanzo in fact did not fall in the water, but was caught just before he fell…and to think for the last 20 years I’ve totally misinterpreted that chapter…I wonder what else I’ve misread…????