Little Town on the Prairie
Racism Revisited
Recently the blog Anti-Racist Parent used my post on how to discuss racism in Little Town on the Prairie as a launchpad for a post digging deeper into this issue from the perspective of parents of children of color. It’s a pretty interesting post that led to numerous comments, most of which were helpful and
Share this Post
Notes on a Mini-LauraPalooza
I finally stood in Plum Creek today.
Tiny minnows swum up and down the creek bed, easily seen in crystal clear water just a few inches deep. From the bank on which I stood, I could look up and directly at the site of the dugout featured in On the Banks of Plum Creek. I remembered
Share this Post
America's King
The crowd was scattering away then, but Laura stood stock still. Suddenly she had a completely new thought. The Declaration and the song came together in her mind, and she thought: God is America’s king.
She thought: Americans won’t obey any king on earth. Americans are free. That means they have to obey their own consciences.
Share this Post
Boom!
Boom!
Laura was jerked out of sleep. The bedroom was dark. Carrie asked in a thin, scared whisper, “What was that?”
“Don’t be scared,” Laura answered. They listened. The window was hardly gray in the dark, but Laura could feel that the middle of the night was past.
BOOM! The air seemed to shake.
“Great guns!” Pa exclaimed sleepily.
“Why?
Share this Post
More On Racism in Little House
The following comment came in from reader Shanti over the weekend, on Laura Welser’s post of May 6, 2009: “Should Little House Be Banned?”
this is a late comment – I came here by way of a Google search on racism in the Little House books. I grew up on these books, but just re-read them
Share this Post
Little House Grammar
My daughter started The Long Winter over the weekend. I am keeping quiet and remaining low-key. She has no idea how thrilled I am, which is the only way she’ll finish the series.
She recently completed By The Shores of Silver Lake. That actually took a little while to get into. We forget, as veteran readers,
Share this Post
Those Sweet, Simple Things Of Life
“It is so hot,” Ma said. “I believe I will have cottage cheese balls with onions in them, and the cold creamed peas. Suppose you bring some lettuce and tomatoes from the garden, Laura.”
~Little Town on the Prairie, “Mary Goes to College”
I had a long talk today with a kindred spirit. Since childhood she’s been
Share this Post
Caroline Ingalls: Everyone's Ma
Caroline Quiner Ingalls was the beloved mother of five children during her lifetime, but through the writings of her daughter Laura Ingalls Wilder, she has become dearly loved as “Ma” to thousands of children through the decades.
Let’s honor Ma this Mother’s Day weekend by sharing a cherished memory of her, or of her influence on
Share this Post
Lazy, Lousy Reprise
With apologies, rather than write a brand-new post I’m going to revisit Eliza Jane. With such insightful, sophisticated comments, it seems a shame not to.
Dawn wrote:
Is it possible that it was just true? That she was annoying and meddling? Maybe they didn’t see it as defamation because maybe (who knows) they used to talk about
Share this Post
Lazy? Lousy? Really?
Something that has always bothered me in the Little House books is the whole Eliza Jane debacle. I couldn’t figure out why Laura presented such a bleak picture of her sister-in-law.
Part of the reason for that is the timeline.
Let me back up. Through the eyes that Laura Ingalls Wilder, the author, allowed for us as
Share this Post
Recent Comments