Skip to main content

TBT: Little House


Hello Lovelies!

Today's TBT is about a series which I adored as a child (pre-Harry Potter days of course).


Referred to in many different ways, the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder were my jam when I was six or seven. 

I seriously read the first book like five or six times. I always tried to keep reading, but I'd get stuck on Farmer Boy (because I was like who's this weird boy and what's he doing in my book?). Little House on the Prairie, I enjoyed, but I didn't like as much as the Big Woods. And I tried to read On the Banks of Plum Creek but for some reason, kept not finishing it. 

This last semester, I had to read Little House in the Big Woods for one of my classes, and it made me remember just how much I adored the book when I was younger. It made me want to reread (or read) the rest of the series. 

These books are not unproblematic. Their treatment of Native Americans and Black people is especially disconcerting to my grown-up eyes. However, now that I am older, I feel like I can read them and see them as both problematic and still enjoyable in other ways. (I did get super uncomfortable reading Pa's song during the first book, but I also still appreciate the day-to-dayness of the rest of the book). 

I have a hard time rating these books, so I'm not going to. On the one hand, I loved them when I was younger, and I love them now. But on the other hand, I'm not entirely sure I would read them to small children today (without a little bit of personal editing or a lot of conversations outside of reading time).


Labels:

Comments

  1. CatalinaFebruary 5, 2015 at 5:35 PM

    I loved these books so much as a kid. I don't think I read past 'On the Banks of Plum Creek' until a few years ago when I decided to reread the entire series. I will always love the first three the most, but 'The Long Winter' was also fantastic/horrifying. I wish there would be a reprinting with some facts about Native American perceptions and other important contextual info at the end, like how the American Girl books always had a little non-fiction part after the main story.

    My love for homesteading type activities is a direct result of the Little House books. Despite their problems I'm happy they planted that seed in me early.
    -Caitlin

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HayleyFebruary 5, 2015 at 5:53 PM

      Yes!! That would be amazing. Someone should contact the Wilder estate and be like, this would be a great thing to do.

      And like I mentioned, I totally want to do a reread of the whole series! I've been trying to remember if I did ever get past On the Banks of Plum Creek, but I don't think it happened! I would love to read the rest of the series.

      In rereading In the Big Woods, it did make me want to try out some homesteading things. I can totally see the correlation :D

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

More Diversity in Your Book Diet

Hello Lovelies! As usual Top Ten Tuesday is brought to you by the lovely people over at The Broke and the Bookish . Today's topic is Top Ten Books for People Who Like X, and I'm going to go with... Top Ten Books for People Who Like Diversity Thanks to the efforts of groups like We Need Diverse Books, diversity is having a resurgence in young adult and children's books. For the last couple years, I have been trying to read more books with diverse characters or by diverse authors. (Diverse in this respect includes race, sexuality, gender, and disability). I haven't endeavored to challenge myself to only read a certain type of book i.e. only those by women of color or anything that isn't by a white heterosexual male, but I try to be extra aware of the characters and ask myself if they actually are white (sometimes the text doesn't say it, sometimes people just assume it!) and if being white is necessary for the character or not.  But here are my top t...
5 comments
Read more
Blarghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Hello lovelies. I'm feeling super overwhelmed by life since I'm doing Camp Nanowrimo and trying to move and find a place to live 2600 miles away. So that's my excuse for missing last week. But now you get two weeks in a row. So this week's theme (hosted as always by The Broke and the Bookish ) is... Top Ten Favorite Movies   (And I picked Scary Movies) I have a secret. Or I guess I had a secret. And that secret is that I love  scary movies. Like anything that plays on gross special effects or melting walls or sudden appearances--I'm totally down for it. (This has only back fired on me once--when I had a panic attack watching Saw 2--I don't wanna talk about it...) So in no particular order, movies that really impressed me with their scare factors: 1. Thir13een Ghosts -- there's this scene with a glass door that is ingrained in my brain.  2. Haunting in Conneticut -- aw man, this movie is sooo good. I actu...
7 comments
Read more
Happy New Year's Eve Lovelies!! I hope you are all out having a terrific night and that you won't see this until 2014 has officially rung in.  Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the wonderful people over at The Broke & the Bookish --check out their post or their list of other awesome blogs who have participated! 1. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell: Once I put up my year in review survey, no one will be surprised by this, but this book is definitely my favorite of the year. It is the most amazing book I've read in a long while.  2. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell: Oh Fangirl, I just barely squeezed you in to 2013, but I managed it. Mostly because once I picked it up I didn't put it back down. I couldn't. It was sort of like reading a pseudo-AU of my life. 3. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang: This was a wonderful book that showed the commonalities and differences of people of all ages across cultures. I loved it.  4. Hyperbole an...
4 comments
Read more