The lads are fascinated with the life and times of Laura Ingalls Wilder -- well, not so much Laura as her Pa and uncles Henry and George. They've just finished Little House in the Big Woods with my beloved. It's not their first encounter with Laura, her sisters, Ma, Pa, and their "good ol' bulldog Jack." We're on our second pass through the picture books in the My First Little House series, having read them when the lads were younger and now again that the elder lass is able to enjoy them. The picture books are excerpts from Wilder's original stories with illustrations to emulate those of Garth Williams that festooned her first editions.
At school the elder lad has tucked away in his desk a later book in the series for when he has a free moment and has enjoyed providing "spoilers" to the family story such as, "did you know Mary goes blind?!" and "did you know Laura has another sister?" since the picture books and Little House in the Big Woods focus on the family story before baby Grace was born.
I read the Little House books as a young girl and am enjoying reading them again as an adult. As I do, I can't help but think about what their lives were like -- especially Ma's -- in relation to my own. Laura was born 145 years ago, and to think of how much the world has changed between then and now boggles the mind. They might not have had to wrestle with four car seats, but they weren't exactly riding in comfort across the prairie and back, either.
Aspects of the life Laura and her family lived remain relevant to our lives today. Even with all our modern conveniences and technology, people will always be more important than things. Reading the original Little House books with their greater level of detail helps us reinforce that message, because we can clearly see how happy and how resourceful they were with the little they had. They had each other, and that was all that mattered.
As the bambini get older, I am looking forward to reading with them the books that have been written about the other women in Laura's family including her mother Caroline, grandmother Charlotte, great-grandmother Martha, and daughter Rose.
Life in Laura's day certainly wasn't easy. To read of the hardships they endured really keeps things in perspective! Yet their devotion to each other and their resiliency supersede all the struggles, making the Little House stories as compelling as ever and inspirational to readers (and listeners) of all ages.
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