Castles, boy wizards overshadow ‘Little House’
My brother gave me a boxed set of the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder when I was 9, and it was probably the greatest gift I ever received. I read them hundreds of times over the years. The battered paperbacks are still on a bookshelf in my bedroom.
Embraced from the start by America’s teachers, the books have been read by or to generations of elementary school kids, which has kept the books in continuous print and spawned the longrunning “Little House on the Prairie” television series.
I couldn’t wait to share the books with my own son.
When I was his age, this was the height of adventure, a family living among black bears and butchering a pig for food, crossing the country in a covered wagon and facing hardships like fire and blizzards.
But Sawyer thinks it’s boring. He prefers stories about pirates, ancient Egypt and boy wizards.
While reading a description of a single meal that stretches over 21⁄2 pages in “Farmer Boy,” Sawyer abandoned me on the couch, saying, “This is making me hungry. Can I get something to eat?”
It’s not just because he’s a boy, though I’m guessing that’s why he can’t get all riled up about how Nellie Oleson, the original mean girl, treated Laura and Mary on their first day of school in “On the Banks of Plum Creek.”
These days, not as many girls are reading Little House books, preferring Harriet the Spy and American Girl books instead, a librarian told me.
It does seem to take Pa forever to build their cabin. And now, as the family recovers from “fever n’ ague,” or malaria, Pa sure is taking his time building Ma a rocking chair from young willow trees.
Sawyer sighs: “He should just go to Ikea.”