Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls WilderMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
When I was a kid, my school had a pretty neat system for handing out reading assignments. They brought in a huge box of Scholastic books and you chose whichever one struck your fancy and wrote a report on it. At around first grade I stumbled upon Little House in the Big Woods and immediately fell in love with Laura, Mary, Ma and Pa. I grew up in Mexico so I was completely unaware of the TV series, my whole experience with Little House was through that box of scholastic books.
Unfortunately, the box didn't have ALL the Laura Ingalls books so I had to wait until fifth or sixth grade to read any more of them. I found the Long Winter and devoured it in a few days. Sure I wondered where Grace had come from and why they were in Dakota and what the heck had happened to Mary's eyes, but mostly I was once more engrossed in Laura's domestic life and her family's struggle for survival.
For a long time I've wanted to catch up on all the things I missed in between books and I have, of course, started with the famous Little House on the Prairie. It's much harder to read these books through adult eyes because you begin to see all the problematic bits. The treatment of Native Americans is a big one here. It was easier to let go their brief appearance in the Long Winter, but here, the unfairness of the Ingallses' views and actions towards Native Americans is left, front and center. You can't ignore Ma's disparaging comments. You can't forget their charming little house stands on stolen land. You can't unsee the tragic passing of a doomed people.
I still love the Little House books, though, in spite of wishing, in this day and age, that they could be published with a forward or introduction that could give a little more historical context for children who stumble on them unaware. Still, I hold these books close to my heart. From them I take the lesson that daily life, domestic life, the minutae of preparing a meal or studying for school is as fascinating and delightful as the most heroic battle, the most tragic death, or the farthest, most foreign land. To my writing I wish to bring Laura's gift for including the everyday into the great adventure, for it is in our small, daily interactions that we build our lives.
I look forward to catching up with these old friends.
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