I have just rediscovered Little House on the Prairie...

[Fillyjonk]

Thats it really

But it is REALLY good

ds won't let me stop reading

Had forgotten about these books

I have just bought the whole set to read with my kids - and then went to my mums for a visit and saw half of my orignal copies sitting on the shelf - grrr - wish I had visited a week earlier.

Hope my kids like it as much as your ds does - how old is he ?

Oh yes, marvellous. We went on holiday to California as kids and I had my nose stuck in these all the way around the state. My mother kept shouting 'LOOK OUT THE WINDOW, YOU CAN READ ABOUT IT WHEN YOU GET HOME'

I love those books. I find it really inspirational the way they just went out there with NO support system and sorted their lives out. I can't wait till ds is old enough to appreciate them.

I can still remember the descriptions of food - sour dough biscuits(always what I remember), the cold winter, the dog that runs next to the wagon and the bonnets.
Will order this now, but will it be like rereading the Narnia books which were as good as I remembered or like The Magic Faraway Tree which was awful!

Oh goodness I loved them, that sleigh ride in the snow and all the smoking and pickling that went on.

And they're still good? I was thinking about them for dd but worried they would prove to be boring.

They will be as good as you remember, honestly.

I remember the descriptions of Christmas, particularly one about taking maple syrup directly from the tree and freezing it in the snow (have I got that right?)

Constance - yes, it's extraordinary when you think about it as an adult. As a child I just read them for the story, and because it seemed very exotic, but now I'm just stunned at what they did.

Can't remember much being said about Native Americans, apart from one instance.

background to them is interesting

ds is 4, which i think shows how good they are. he is very into growing stuff and has some exposure to hippies though .

i read him most of little house in the big woods today and half of the prairie one

have just ordered farmer boy

oooh no, native americans, big thing, not so good

have had to explain this in historical context to him.

Farmer Boy is excellent - one of my favourites

I keep meaning to lay hands on the ones where she's married but still haven't got round to it

Ma really hated native americans iirc. She was afraid of them. I seem to remember Pa and Laura being a bit more sympathetic.

Pa's beard in rl gave me a shock, it is so triangular. They had a baby son who died, which was terribly sad.

yes i really want a biography of her which isn't too adoring fan-ness iykwim

i am also astounded at how far they travelled-from wisconsin to kansas is a bloody long way!

beard quite bushy here

I thought of Ma after I had my son. Childbirth with no gas and air

and charles ingalls' family moved from new york state to illinois

that a long way with big lakes to go round

Have you read the bit about the ball lightening? I loved that bit.

LIGHTNING (sorry)

Wonderful books.
They still enthrall me.That Wikipedia stuff was fascinating.
Almanze sweeping Laura off her feet (literally in those wild buggy rides)was soooo romantic (although i bet quite not so in RL).

They have given me so much pleasure over the years.

I can't believe I didn't know they were autobiographical!

fillyjonk, thank you for that wikipedia link, fascinating stuff

It was all apparently quite fictionalised, though, apparently, which I find equally fascinating.

fabulous, fabulous books - my brother and I read them loads of times as children. I recently bought the boxed set for the dds when they are a bit older.

I always wanted to marry Almanzo - those beautiful horses....

Laura kept a diary which she used to inform the books. The first book is interesting as Laura never actually lived in the "Big Woods", it was before she was born. I think there is a book by her daughter which gives a more rounded picture, but I can't remember the name.

MI I worked it out frm Farmer Boy

tis obviously all the exciting things that he remembered from childhood compressed intp one year

I Love them - wish DS would be thrilled with a stick of candy and a pair of home made mittens for Christmas.