JennifersLost Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Darn kids' books - they make me cry all the time. My poor dd! Sheesh - he worked so hard for that. It was making me so nervous he was buying all that stuff on credit, though. It all seemed doomed from the start. I wonder what Caroline's parents thought of all the stuff they got up to. Seems like they tried a lot of things that didn't work so well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicole M Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Darn kids' books - they make me cry all the time. My poor dd! Sheesh - he worked so hard for that. It was making me so nervous he was buying all that stuff on credit, though. It all seemed doomed from the start. I wonder what Caroline's parents thought of all the stuff they got up to. Seems like they tried a lot of things that didn't work so well. I totally think Pa had ADD. The part that makes me cry, though, is when Pa says that it doesn't matter that they don't have sugar for the cornbread, because Ma's hand print in the bread is all the sweetener he needs. I don't know if I'm crying because he's a charmer and he's duped Caroline into following him around in circles, or because it is so... charming. Darn those children's book, anyway! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 I doubt Caroline's family heard from them enough to know about many of the things they were up to. But I cried reading parts of all the Little House books (maybe not Farmer Boy but the others.) I also cried at the end of "Charlotte's Web". When I cry, ds11 pats my hand and tells me "it's ok, Mom - it's only a book!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zelda Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Darn kids' books - they make me cry all the time. My poor dd! Sheesh - he worked so hard for that. It was making me so nervous he was buying all that stuff on credit, though. It all seemed doomed from the start. That one got to me too. I mean, I didn't cry but I'm a robot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpidarkomama Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 I tear up all the time too! We just finished These Happy Golden Years today, and this time it was Laura getting married and moving out to go to Almanzo's homestead. I'll probably really bawl my eyes out when we finish the series! It's primetime entertainment. We're always SO excited to hear papa (or mama) read the next installment. The whole series is 2,753 pages and we think we'll have some kind of Little House party when we finish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeanne in MN Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 I practically need to be on antidepressants to get through that one, lol! I can't fathom being stuck in a small space, with other people, as cold as it was, so little food, storm after storm after storm after storm, one day looking just like the next, poor Laura not being able to think anymore, no hope of trains coming through, not seeing other people. Very depressing book for me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PollyOR Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 I really admire Ma & Pa Ingalls. They were amazingly strong people. We read the entire series a few years back, and I decided that I would never read the last one again (The First Four Years). It was too heavy for me. When I was younger, I used to make fun of my sister for crying during movies. Well, I guess it's payback time. I cry a LOT when I read aloud to the girls. Drives me crazy! Sometimes I can't even get through a picture book (ex: The Rag Coat) without getting choked up. If I pause the least while reading, my younger girls immediately search my face and ask why I'm crying. Maybe I should tell them that they'll understand when they become the mommy reading aloud to their kids. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizzie in Ma Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Sap Central here! I begin sobbing in book 2 when Jack goes missing after they cross the river. My kids think I am bonkers. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherine Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 I just finished The First Four Years with my boys and lost it when Laura and Almanzo's son died, and then their house burned down, all within a few weeks. That book just broke my heart. Between Almanzo's spendthrift ways, their recurring bad luck\bad weather, the diphtheria epidemic, it was just so sad. it truly made me appreciate the security and safety I take for granted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdie Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 I always cry at that part. Have you read Stone Fox yet? It is a wonderful book, but a major tear jerker. My sister is a 4th grade teacher and every year she reads it to her class in tears. LOL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 The Little House books are my favorites of all time. I have read them so much that my paperback series is falling apart--some of them still have cookie crumbs in the middle from when I was a little girl! (Ok, that's kinda gross...) Dd has read the entire series several times, and we have read the series together 4 times. They are just books to live with, books to reread over and over, for us, anyway. Just yesterday, she set herself up with pillows on the living room floor and read Little Town and half of Happy Golden Years; they are like old friends she constantly wants to revisit. They are books that promote an emotional response because they tell a mostly true story thru the lens of an optimistic, grateful and capable woman, a woman who endured such hardship but found such joy in her life. Jack's death always gets me, and I love the vindication Laura obviously feels when Mary admits, as a young adult, how she tried so hard to be good, calling herself proud--and Laura knew it, even as a child. She goes on to say that being good is not all there is--a great teaching moment of the series. Also, the ending of HGY (spoiler ahead) where they are sitting together, looking out over the prairie gets me--Pa's lyrics "playing in the backround." I cry then, because I know all the heartache (Or, some of the heartache) they will endure in the first years of their marriage--but I remember all of the sweetness that will follow, too. That meshes well with my view of life, a view I'm coming to terms with after the hard times I have gone thru with my family--there is heartache over bad choices, there are things you can control and things you can't. Taking all of it and making a life of joy out of it--I call it "twilight and sunrise," and that's why I named my blog that. Laura was a great example of just living an ordinary life, but accepting all of it with grace. I hope you enjoy all the books!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janna Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 I remember choking back tears when I read these to dd too. What I couldn't hold back on, and what dd still remembers (it was 4 or 5 years ago), was having to stop to compose myself when reading the American Girl "Addy" series. I'm pretty sure I have choked up in "Sign of the Beaver" too, as well as others. I agree: Darn Children's books! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmy Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 I read the entire little house series last year just for myself - I hadn't read them since I was a child but they were huge favorites of mine back then. It was really fascinating to read them through a different lens - as an adult this time. As a child I identified with Laura in thinking Pa was the smartest most amazing adventurous man ever. As an adult with children of my own I thought Pa needed to buckle down and get a job and quit taking all these risks and moving his children all over willy nilly! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennifersLost Posted January 4, 2009 Author Share Posted January 4, 2009 Isn't it amazing how your perspective changes as an adult? When Jack went missing in "Little House", my dd started to cry. I told her that I'd read the book before and that he was all right - I can't stand it when she cries! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 The Little House books are my treasure from childhood. Laura and Mary were my friends when I didnt' have any. My classmates who were mean to me were Mean Nellie Olsen personified. I sooo identified with Laura - with her desire to be good, but never feeling like she measured up to Mary. I admired her spunk. I admired her relationship with her parents. I never owned the books, but I borrowed them over and over again from my friend as a kid. One Christmas, I bought the set for my niece and I went ahead and bought another one for myself:). Every once in a while, I read the Long Winter to my kids to remind us all how good we have it!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4summergirls Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 As another Little House (handsdown favorite series as a girl, and my oldest is even named Laura) series lover, can I just share something that you gals will appreciate? We're planning a 6 week x-country trip this summer, and dh asked me where I'd like to go. Without batting an eye, I said, "De Smet to the Little House museums." Backstory: 16 years ago we were driving out to CA to live, and we saw the sign for De Smet from the highway in SD. I really wanted to go, but I knew it would set us back at least half a day and dh really wan't interested, so I didn't push it. Now I get my second chance and with all my girls too, which will make it so much nicer! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 We just went this summer. DD loved it so much, she insisted she wanted to be Laura for Halloween. We bought a bonnet there and I made a dress and pinafore this fall. She wants to go again and camp in the covered wagons! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarlett Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 I practically need to be on antidepressants to get through that one, lol! I can't fathom being stuck in a small space, with other people, as cold as it was, so little food, storm after storm after storm after storm, one day looking just like the next, poor Laura not being able to think anymore, no hope of trains coming through, not seeing other people. Very depressing book for me! Oh yes! Me too. That was the worst book in the history of books. Although I am sure Laura deserves an award for her accurate portrayal of their life then. Shudder. We read Farmer Boy immediately after and I was never so happy to read all about food, food , food. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarlett Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 As another Little House (handsdown favorite series as a girl, and my oldest is even named Laura) series lover, can I just share something that you gals will appreciate? We're planning a 6 week x-country trip this summer, and dh asked me where I'd like to go. Without batting an eye, I said, "De Smet to the Little House museums." Backstory: 16 years ago we were driving out to CA to live, and we saw the sign for De Smet from the highway in SD. I really wanted to go, but I knew it would set us back at least half a day and dh really wan't interested, so I didn't push it. Now I get my second chance and with all my girls too, which will make it so much nicer! :) This is so cool. I took my niece and nephew with my mom to see the Wilder place in MO. I was pregnant with ds...9 1/2 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 I love those books. We just listened to them on CD last year. We were all sad when they were over. I found now as an adult I really wanted to hear more about the rest of her life, and went and read a biography of Laura, as well as a whole book of further autobiographical writings by Laura and her daughter Rose from later in her life. Long Winter... I practically need to be on antidepressants to get through that one, lol! I can't fathom being stuck in a small space, with other people, as cold as it was, so little food, storm after storm after storm after storm, one day looking just like the next, poor Laura not being able to think anymore, no hope of trains coming through, not seeing other people. Very depressing book for me! One fascinating thing I learned from the biography is that Laura actually sweetened that story - in real life they had another family living with them that winter, a couple with an infant. And they were apparently depressed do-nothings who ate their almost non-existent food and just sat there at the table refusing to help grind wheat or twist hay. Yeesh! I'm glad she left them out! Laura also never intended the last rather depressing book (First Four Years) to be published - it was found and published posthumously. I think she thought the up-note of These Happy Golden Years was a nicer place to end the story. If you're hungry for more Laura, I also read a book of letters she wrote home to Almanzo from visiting Rose and the Pan-American Fair in San Francisco called "West from Home". Laura rides an airplane and eats too many doughnuts! LOL. Much better reading than "On the Way Home", which is a personal diary and kinda boring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klmama Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 I tear up all the time too! We just finished These Happy Golden Years today, and this time it was Laura getting married and moving out to go to Almanzo's homestead. I'll probably really bawl my eyes out when we finish the series! It's primetime entertainment. We're always SO excited to hear papa (or mama) read the next installment. The whole series is 2,753 pages and we think we'll have some kind of Little House party when we finish. Just to warn you, you'll probably cry a lot more in The First Four Years. It isn't fleshed out like the other books, and there are more tragedies than usual. In fact, it's kind of a downer. If you want to end on a happy note, you might want to stop now. If you really want the whole story, though, you may want to move on after The First Four Years to On The Way Home, which is a diary of the trip from South Dakota to Mansfield, MO in 1894. Again, it isn't the heart-warming "story" of the first books, but it does let you know what happened in their lives. It's actually better, I think, for a realistic portrayal of life in those days. Then there's also West From Home, which is a collection of letters Laura wrote to Almanzo from a trip she took, and Little House in the Ozarks, which is a collection of articles she wrote for publication there. Some very interesting knowledge shared in those, I thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeanne in MN Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 If you are going to DeSmet, you're only a few hours from Walnut Grove, MN too. But perhaps you are already aware of that. I grew up very near Walnut Grove. They have a nice museum, and you can go see Plum Creek and where their dugout was-although the dugout is no longer there. Not as much to see as at DeSmet, but still worthwhile, I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeanne in MN Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 One fascinating thing I learned from the biography is that Laura actually sweetened that story - in real life they had another family living with them that winter, a couple with an infant. And they were apparently depressed do-nothings who ate their almost non-existent food and just sat there at the table refusing to help grind wheat or twist hay. Yeesh! I'm glad she left them out! Wow, I had no idea they lived with another family. That's even worse! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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