The Wilder Life.

When I heard that there was a book being written about Little House on the Prairie fandom, I got really excited. I think I even mentioned it here on the blog, months before it was released. I'm not sure why I got so excited, because as a kid, I wasn't a huge fan of the Little House series. I read two or three of them, and I loved those, but I never read the rest of the series, for whatever reason.

I think I was just drawn to the idea of someone being like me. Someone loving children's books and being a huge fan of a certain series (for me, it's the Chronicles of Narnia). And actually visiting all of the places related to the books.

So I decided to read the entire Little House series before I read this book. I gradually collected them all from Goodwill and read them {you can read my reviews for the first two here and two more here...the rest will be briefly reviewed next week in my "What I Read: May" post}. And I fell in love with this sweet little series. As soon as I finished reading These Happy Golden Years, I grabbed The Wilder Life from my to-read shelf and got started.

I love this book. It's one of my favorite books that I've read so far in 2011. The author writes in a random, meandering style, but it works really well. I found out so much about the real life Ingalls family and how it compares to the books. And I realized that the 70s TV series is even more bizarre and different from the books than I thought (I'm just a casual viewer). I loved reading about the author's trips to visit all of the Laura Ingalls-related sites, and how she attempted pioneer-type experiments: she churns butter, bakes recipes from the series, tries to make a straw "stick" like the ones that the Ingalls family had to burn during the Long Winter, etc.

The Wilder Life is a humorous, loving tribute to the Little House series. If you're a fan, you'll probably love this book. It made me want to learn more about the real Laura Ingalls Wilder, so I'll probably be searching the library for some of the books in the recommended reading section at the back of this book. I found myself taking this book pretty slowly, because I didn't want it to end.

Two little qualms I had: there's mild language sprinkled throughout (I'm learning that's common in modern writing). And the author pokes fun at some of the Christian people she meets along the way, including homeschooling moms who use the Little House books as part of their curriculum and a church group who is learning homesteading skills to be prepared for the end times (she and her boyfriend are "freaked out" by the "End Timers," as she calls them).

Until next time,