<p>Always glad to hear people who love these books as much as me! I still have the copy of Little House in The Big Woods I got for Christmas when I was 8-9. This thread makes me want to go get my set right now and start them again. My sister and I played “Little House” in our back yard and to this day we will recite lines of the book to each other. </p>
<p>I also loved Anne of Green Gables, Trixie Belden, The All of a Kind family, and the Shoe books. Recently I’ve been on a hunt to find the Katie John books. Anyone remember those?</p>
<p>My parents went to the library constantly when I was growing up, but we had few books of our own, which was why when my D became a voracious reader, I took the opportunity to read many of the books soon after ( or before) she did. We had enough books for a library of our own.</p>
<p>I especially enjoyed reading the Wrinkle in Time series and the later books with the same characters. And i was pleased that D also loved Island of the Blue Dolphins as much as I had.
Besides Harry Potter, the book I associate with my younger daughters early grade school years was The Giver. Even before she could read smoothly, she listened to it on tape every night for over a year.</p>
<p>Our D loved the LEW books. She found a paperback set at a book fair or somewhere. She read and reread those books so much they are literally falling apart. I don’t think I ever read the entire set. </p>
<p>D even tried making and eating a few of the things she read about in the books but found them disappointing.</p>
<p>HImom–did she use the Little House cookbook? I’d have to guess that we are pretty spoiled about food these days. Things back then may not have been so tasty.</p>
<p>No. She just tried making things as they were described in the stories. I found it fascinating how she was so transported by the books. She did burn some of the pans pretty well cooking sugar and a few other things. She hadn’t cooked much at that time. ;)</p>
<p>I grew up in a pretty unhappy home—parents just were not happy together. It was pretty rough. Those Little House books and the characters in them were my refuge. Literally. I actually think I learned to value home and family, in large part, from reading those books. I have read them countless times and, during one summer when I had back surgery and spent a good deal of time off my feet, I read them aloud with my daughter. Such precious memories there!</p>
<p>Also, my DIL gave me the Little House cookbook for Christmas last year. It’s pretty fascinating reading----turns out our modern day food is very, very different than what was available then. Even unprocessed foods, like vegetables, probably taste very different. But I still LOVE reading in the Little House books about the food…it all sounds so delicious!</p>
<p>Read all the Little House on the Prairie series but did not own any of them. Our small town library was in an old white clapboard Victorian house. Finding the books in all the different little nooks and crannies of the house was an adventure in itself. I could stay there for hours.</p>
<p>Basil, I LOVED the Trixie Belden series. Owned every one of them and read them several times over. I was positive that I was going to be a detective when I grew up and would have horses (like the ones from Honey’s stables) to ride. I did have a pony but never got to be a detective!</p>
<p>Loved all the Little House books AND Trixie Belden. But then I read anything that had horses in it. (But I think I loved the LH books a bit more ;))</p>
<p>Another Anne of Green Gables fan here - loved those books. And bevhills mentioned Cherry Ames, which I collected borderline obsessively, though they were not really on the same level as children’s literature as Little House and the Anne books. She was a beautiful nurse who took a series of jobs (Cherry Ames, Army Nurse/Boarding School Nurse/Cruise Nurse, etc.) and just happened to find a mystery to solve in every new location.</p>
<p>My absolute favorite children’s books were by Edward Eager - Half Magic, Knight’s Castle, The Time Garden, etc. Once I grew up, I realized he’d been heavily influenced by E. Nesbit, whose books I thought were a little too precious. Eager’s books were very witty, as were the illustrations by N. M. Bodecker. My kids did love his books too, but not as much as they loved Harry Potter.</p>
<p>I read The Giver after my son finished reading it at school. Creepy! Do kids really need all that supernatural stuff to be entertained? At least they learn something when reading historical fiction.</p>
<p>One of my favorite books, which I have read probably half a dozen times, is My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George. It’s really a book for boys, I think, but I absolutely love it.</p>
<p>Upthread someone mentioned the Wrinkle in Time books by Madeleine L’Engle. My brother gave my oldest d a copy of the first book when she was still very young. It was signed by the author, who also wrote “Tesser well.” (Which we found very cool.) When this d applied to colleges, one of her essays was about the importance of the book in her life. And when my d was married, my brother read a selection by Madeleine L’Engle at the ceremony.</p>
<p>Thanks to this thread for making me remember all this. :)</p>
<p>VeryHappy- I loved that book. I even use to think about trying to survive on a mountain and how cool that would be. I don’t want to do that anymore!</p>
<p>I read the LH books to my girls as we traveled through South Dakota one year. They really enjoyed them but my husband loved them. He would drive and I would read aloud. He had never heard of the books before and I think he was (as I always was) amazed with the details and the hardships.</p>
<p>Wow. Seriously? Creepy?? I read the Giver after my children raved about it and loved it. Dystopian fiction/fantasy is a well-trodden road for young adult and even children’s literature and certainly has worth. I am really trying not to make this sound harsh but i am afraid I will fail: your statement above kind of lights a fire under me! Kind of like when a local parent tried to get Harry Potter removed from school libraries because of “the supernatural stuff” in it. Children love to be imaginative, and gifted authors who can create worlds that can inspire that imagination are a huge spark to encourage a full-fledged love of reading on into adulthood. The Giver, as I recall (it’s been many years since I read that one) also encouraged deep considerations of individuality and beauty and freedom. That is what my kids loved most about that book!</p>
<p>Aside from the Little House books, I loved reading everything from Nancy Drew to Tom Swift (my older brother introduced me to those…it fueled my love of Science Fiction!!), and Little Women to The Swiss Family Robinson. Picked up the Anne of Green Gables books only after seeing the excellent PBS series starring Megan Fallows back in the 80s. And as an adult, I have read the Harry Potter books multiple times. Hehe, I also love reading Tom Clancy and wish the main character in his Jack Ryan series of books could, in fact, be elected President. :)</p>
<p>Himom - there’s a “Little House Cookbook” you can get and there’s also the wonderful “World of Little House” which has a chapter for each book complete with a recipe, a craft idea, and floor plans of the houses in each story. I nearly cried when I got that book and saw the beautiful, smiling photo of Laura later in life (around age 60). It’s quite a treat!</p>
<p>Also, I remember hearing that she and Rose went to the San Francisco World’s Fair. Would that have been 1915? If so, it’s quite a trip and makes you wonder about her never going back to South Dakota after her father died. Maybe it was just too hard to visit there for emotional reasons.</p>
<p>I heard also that she, Carrie and Grace had undiagnosed diabetes. It’s why Carrie and Grace died rather young although Laura was healthy until quite a ripe old age.</p>
<p>And all this time I thought he was Alanzo :/</p>
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<p>I often wonder whether those men who essentially failed at farming would be just fine today in an office job that requires no manual skills.</p>
<p>Years ago, we visited the birthplace site miles outside of Pepin. It was very isolated, very quiet and peaceful. We brought along a picnic lunch from town, which was a good thing as the only amenity at the site was a picnic table.</p>
<p>One of the things I noticed in LH books was how many economic recessions she mentioned, where the family would lose everything and have to start over.</p>