Earlier today, I saw a post on Facebook in which a person said, of Wilder's The Long Winter, "this is the only book that can put what's happening in Boston in perspective. It could be worse, wicked worse."
The woman who wrote that post must think she's being clever, comparing the blizzard in Boston to the one in The Long Winter.
If you care about accuracy in how Native peoples are depicted, or if you care about how derogatory depictions of Native people impact the growing minds of Native and non-Native children, then I think we'd agree that it is long past time to set aside that series.
Because of their status and
place of nostalgia in the minds
of so many Americans,
few books for children are as wicked
as those in the Little House on the Prairie series.
Ah---you say, 'there were Indians in
The Long Winter?'
Yes. The chapter called "Indian Warning" has a very old Indian man in it. Here's from page 61:
"Heap big snow come," this Indian said.
As he gestured, the blanket he is wearing slides off his shoulder and his "naked brown arm" came out. He continues:
"Heap big snow, big wind," he said.
Pa asks him how long, and of course he says "Many moons" and holds up four, and then three fingers that mean seven months of blizzards.
"You white men," he said. "I tell-um you."
On page 186, the wind grows louder and louder. It reminds Laura of the "Indian war whoops" when Indians were doing "war dances" by the Verdigris River when she was younger.
See what I mean? Stereotypes. Set it aside.
There’s only one book to get me through the present icy weather, and that’s Laura Ingalls Wilder’s The Long Winter.
There something to be said for escapist books full of sunshine and palm trees and cocktails for cold times. But I find burying myself in the blizzards and hardship endured by the indomitable Ingalls family in their 1880s Dakota frontier town both puts our present disastrous weather into perspective and does that most comforting thing – makes it into a childhood story.
I’ve been a huge fan of the Little House on the Prairie books since I was about seven and my aunt gave me the first one – I promptly wrote her a letter asking if she could give me the next six forthwith. I loved rebellious Laura, the sense of independence and adventure, and also all the practical and at the same time (to me) exotic details, about how to build a log house or collect maple syrup or trap gophers (I still don’t really know what a gopher is; as a child I somehow got the idea that it was a sort of big furry spider). I loved the close-knit family, Pa’s fiddle music, their poor but deliriously happy Christmases.
So rereading The Long Winter is a nostalgic trip back into the comfort of childhood, when all I did was sit curled up with a book, living other people’s adventures in my head and dreaming up my own. I’m still struck by the adventurousness, and by the reassuringly calm heroics of Ma and Pa Ingalls keeping the family together. I’m more appalled by the hardship now; and suspect that in truth they survived seven months of awful claustrophobia and boredom on top of hunger and weakness and cold with a lot more than just one temper tantrum from Laura... And I find the story of Almanzo’s brave trip into a blizzard to find corn to feed the starving townspeople (when in fact he has a load of his own corn squirreled away in town that he’s saving to plant in spring) a lot more morally interesting as an adult.
In the years since, I’ve read many more winter books, and lived through quite a few seven-month Ukrainian winters of my own. Now, even while I’m commiserating with my poor parents up in the north-west, I’m worrying about Ukrainian and Russian friends stuck with record snow-drifts this year. But The Long Winter is still my paradigm of wintry hardship endured and overcome.
(Although if we really have a whole month of this coming up, I may have to turn to The Worst Journey in the World, Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s account of Scott’s last trip to the Antarctic. Several hours thawing out a sleeping bag just enough to actually be able to get inside it, every night, for weeks... Now that puts our weather into perspective.)
What books are getting you through the cold?
www.lilyhyde.com
Whenever I hear the name Laura Ingalls Wilder, or even just think it, a warm homey feeling comes over me like being covered in my grandma's quilt. 
Today I'm getting that feeling a lot, since February 7th is Laura Ingalls Wilder's birthday (born in 1867) and she is very much on my mind.
It's been said that Wilder wrote the Little House books to preserve the stories of her childhood for today's children, to help them to understand how much America had changed during her lifetime. Thanks to her foresight, generations of children have vicariously lived the pioneer experience and gained an appreciation of the difficulties the early homesteaders faced in a way that no history book or adult recitation of "how good we have it" could ever accomplish.
The Little House books have also given readers an opportunity to bond across generations, when the books are lovingly passed along from a parent or grandparent who fell in love with the series during their own childhood. Personally, I read my mother's set--which didn't include The First Four Years, discovered many years after Wilder's death--with their odd square shape and cloth covers, purchased during a time when the author was still alive (Wilder died in 1957 at the age of 90). I have warm memories of reading those old books, pretending I was living in the Ingalls cabin alongside Laura and Mary, and I can't wait to share the series with my own daughter. Reading even a fraction of the hundreds of customer reviews tells me that the Little House bond is shared by many, and one of the beautiful things about these books is that they are loved by boys and girls alike.
Wilder was 65 in 1932 when her first book, Little House in the Big Woods, was published and her books have remained in print ever since. In 1954 the American Library Association founded the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, the first one given to its namesake, and now awarded every two years to "an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children." The current winner is Tomie dePaola, who received the award in 2011. Besides the children's book award, there are museums, elementary schools (including one in my hometown), countless books, blogs, and websites--even a crater on Venus named for Laura Ingalls Wilder. And then, of course, there was the wildly popular television show that brought Laura, most notably in the form of Melissa Gilbert, into the homes of millions every week (along with Nellie Olesen, the quintessential mean girl). It's quite a legacy.
Please join me in some Little House nostalgia, as I reminisce about maple syrup candy and falling asleep to the sound of fiddle playing--what are some of your favorite Little House moments? --Seira
The nine books in the Little House series:
By: Seira Wilson,
on 2/7/2012
Blog:
Schiel & Denver Book Publishers Blog
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Whenever I hear the name Laura Ingalls Wilder, or even just think it, a warm homey feeling comes over me like being covered in my grandma's quilt. Today I'm getting that feeling a lot, since February 7th is Laura Ingalls Wilder's birthday (born in 1867) and she is very much on my mind.
It's been said that Wilder wrote the Little House books to preserve the stories of her childhood for today's children, to help them to understand how much America had changed during her lifetime. Thanks to her foresight, generations of children have vicariously lived the pioneer experience and gained an appreciation of the difficulties the early homesteaders faced in a way that no history book or adult recitation of "how good we have it" could ever accomplish.
The Little House books have also given readers an opportunity to bond across generations, when the books are lovingly passed along from a parent or grandparent who fell in love with the series during their own childhood. Personally, I read my mother's set--which didn't include The First Four Years, discovered many years after Wilder's death--with their odd square shape and cloth covers, purchased during a time when the author was still alive (Wilder died in 1957 at the age of 90). I have warm memories of reading those old books, pretending I was living in the Ingalls cabin alongside Laura and Mary, and I can't wait to share the series with my own daughter. Reading even a fraction of the hundreds of customer reviews tells me that the Little House bond is shared by many, and one of the beautiful things about these books is that they are loved by boys and girls alike.
Wilder was 65 in 1932 when her first book, Little House in the Big Woods, was published and her books have remained in print ever since. In 1954 the American Library Association founded the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, the first one given to its namesake, and now awarded every two years to "an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children." The current winner is Tomie dePaola, who received the award in 2011. Besides the children's book award, there are museums, elementary schools (including one in my hometown), countless books, blogs, and websites--even a crater on Venus named for Laura Ingalls Wilder. And then, of course, there was the wildly popular television show that brought Laura, most notably in the form of Melissa Gilbert, into the homes of millions every week (along with Nellie Olesen, the quintessential mean girl). It's quite a legacy.
Please join me in some Little House nostalgia, as I reminisce about maple syrup candy and falling asleep to the sound of fiddle playing--what are some of your favorite Little House moments? --Seira
The nine books in the Little House series:
For our East Coast teacher readers enjoying (and I use this term somewhat loosely) an extended break from school -- I hope you were finally able to get outside this weekend. As for me, I was tempted to kiss the ground when I finally made it to Costco. (For the record, my daughter finds snow "too cold" for play and my son is too short to venture outdoors at the moment, lest he should disappear into a drift. Thus I literally did not leave the house for at least 5 days.)
As a teacher-spouse, I am always happy to do the snow dance with my husband in the event of a flake or two in the forecast. However, after ten days trapped indoors with two little kids, our feelings toward snow days have begun to evolve. My husband is worried about his students' ability to pass their upcoming state tests, and I've all but given up on the first two essays I've assigned to my class.
So, teachers among us, do we have a contingency plan in the event of interrupted instruction? I have asked (and reminded) my students to check school email and Blackboard regularly. Since the first class cancellation (three snowfalls ago) I have been emailing them like a crazy woman. Their papers were due last week. I have heard from about 5 students since we last met. In short, I wish I had been clearer regarding my expectations in the event of a missed class. Of course, given the conditions, some may have been without Internet access, computers, or even electricity for a time. But over the course of two weeks, if I could make it to Costco and throw a dinner party attended by out-of-state guests -- am I really expecting too much?
I just made a list of the material I need to review in class today. I'm hoping to cover 4 chapters in 75 minutes. I don't even know where to begin -- MLA, revising, grammar? Aagh!
By contrast, I remember my childhood snow days with such fondness. The year we moved here from Hawaii was the year we experienced the blizzard of '79. Well, I do recall being in big trouble for climbing on my father's car (I couldn't see it!), but otherwise it was a week of building forts and playing rummy and re-reading THE BOBBSEY TWINS' OWN LITTLE PLAYHOUSE. I have thought often of that book this week. That, and (of course) THE LONG WINTER. The details I remember are an odd assortment -- tea and hearts from the former; from the latter, brown bread, twisted rope used for fuel, chapped hands. Give me LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS any day. Actually, give me Hawaii any day!
Wishing everyone a safe, warm day, and Kung Hei Fat Choi! ("Congratulations, and wishing you prosperity!") For what it's worth, the celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year is also known as Spring Festival. Celebration time!
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Oh yes, the best in the series I think. Thanks for the reminder, and now, instead of complaining about the heating breaking down I shall be glad I'm not twisting straw....
I recommend Dr Zhivago and Anna Katerina. There's something about those Russian novels that evokes the extreme coldness of freezing snowy wastes. Or maybe I'm just recalling how Julie Christie and Omar Shariiff looked in the movie..
Odd that you mention Scott's book, I was only thinking of it yesterday and trying to fathom what madness sends men into such extreme conditions.... as my hands turned more and more bloodless from Raynauds disease. I can't begin to imagine the agony of such extreme cold. My hands go white and bloodless just washing a salad in summer!
Oh yes, I love The Long Winter! Though I don't know whether I'd actually read it in cold weather... I'd rather have something warm! Kim?
Thanks for the comments, all. Dianne - I know! They were mad, all those Antarctic adventurers. And so unbelievably ill-equipped.
The trouble with Kim, Katherine, is that it just makes me want to leap on some form of transport RIGHT NOW and run away to the Himalayas..
It's been years since I read it - must go and read it again. I recently read the first Little House book (Big Woods) on a night when a storm was raging, and it seemed as if the nearby trees were going to come crashing down upon me - reading about Laura, in her log cabin under the snow, with the wolves howling, was strangely comforting!
They are comforting books, aren't they. You know that whatever the wolves, blizzards or drunken railroad workers, Ma and Pa will cope...
I borrowed a couple from a friend recently. Re-reading them I was much more aware of the incredible hardships endured than I remember being as a child.
Kath