I'm not much different than other Midwestern girls. I read the "Laura" books as a child. I've read them at least once to my oldest daughters and now they are reading them to the little girl in the family.
We've done the butter churning (ahem heavy cream shaking) experiments and the corn cob doll making and
We've visited the site where the books were written and done unit studies in our homeschool around the Laura Ingalls Wilder books.
When I came across this book chronicling a Midwest woman's look (and trips) into her childhood memories with the Laura books, I put in my request with the local library.
So what did I think?
Wendy finds a worn set of Laura books and begins her memory trips into her childhood. She (married after the book comes out I believe) drags her boyfriend on many trips and experiments to find the truthfulness in her memories about the real life events of Laura, Mary and Ma and Pa Ingalls. I enjoyed her fact finding,
mostly.
She follows footsteps (or rather wagon ruts) of Laura all across the Midwest and journals it along the way. She (even though she lives in the Windy City) forgets that we can have some pretty dozy winters around here.
I appreciated her candid images of what she did and did not like about each site visited. Her boyfriend kindly reads the books so that he can understand her journey. I think he must really care about her!
For myself I think that reading this chronicle of sorts was lengthy...and perhaps I could have enjoyed listening to her give a speech or talk about her book instead. At times, I'm sorry to say, I skimmed. My eyes were not as focused as when I read the real Laura books. Perhaps because I don't experience all the books the way Wendy did.
What I did like of the book is that she didn't give up when she had obstacles in her way. I laughed when she decided she needed to own a butter churn of her own. (did I say that she lives in Chicago?) I agreed with her that living in the country would be a fun thing to try. I wouldn't pay to spend the night on someone else's farm like she did. But then again there are farms that are owned in my family and I have spent the night on them before.
I think she misses the joy of reading as a child. I think the most fun I have had with the Laura books is sharing them with my girls. I'd like her to write a sequel in x years when she's had her own child to read with! Perhaps that is when she will come full circle with her memories. For a daughter and a mother have things that only the two of them (or in my case the four of them) can share.