Growing up, I loved Little House on the Prairie series, both the children’s books and the television show. My girls have taken a liking to the stories, too. They have listened to several of the books on CD during van rides, at rest time, and at bedtime. Steady Eddie gave me the first season of Little House on the Prairie on dvd as a gift several years ago, and because our girls are a little on the sensitive side when it comes to watching movies (the fighting cat and dog in Cinderella, for example, quickly reduces them to tears), we often resort to an episode of Little House for our sporadic family movie nights. They have enjoyed the stories so much, in fact, that they have made them a large part of their imaginative play. Lulu is Mary (“She went blind from scarlet fever,” announced my four year old) and Louise is Laura. Last week, braids were in high fashion here at the Hope Is the Word house:
I get a lot of enjoyment out of listening to my girls’ playacting.
We have borrowed the audiobooks so often from the library that we have decided to add several of the titles to our own home collection. Santa will be bringing some of these to our house this Christmas:
May I suggest one of these titles for your own little Lauras, Marys, and Almanzos this Christmas? If you follow the Amazon links here and purchase through my blog, even more books will find their ways to the Hope Is the Word house, and hence, more reviews to the blog by the same name.
Filed under: Audiobooks, Bookish Thoughts, Education, Juvenile Fiction |
Hope Is the Word 
[…] Basket Moon by Mary Lyn Ray (illustrated by Barbara Cooney) is the interesting story of a little boy who lives with his Ma and Pa in the backwoods of Columbia County, New York, in what is presumably the 1800s. His father makes baskets for a living, going into the town of Hudson to sell his wares only when there is a Basket Moon (i.e. full moon). The little boy longs for the day when his father will take him to town, too, but when that day comes, he learns that venturing into society brings with it some pain and disappointment. His parents and community help him cope with his disappointment by giving him the gift of a calling: to be basketmaker, too. I suppose you could say this is a bildungsroman, picture book style. According to the author’s note at the end of this book, this story is based on an actual community of basketmakers who lived in that same region of New York. This would be a great story to use as a part of a history or social studies lesson. I was surprised that my girls, ages four (”and a half,” Lulu would quickly add) and two, enjoyed this, but out of all the books we read, this one was the most requested. Maybe it’s their penchant for pioneer stories. […]
[…] However, I forget sometimes that they are only four and three, so I have been known to be a little over ambitious. I was so eager to introduce them to characters with whom they would spend enough time to really get to know that I’m afraid that Lulu was not even four yet when I first introduced her and her then barely-two-year-old sister to the world of Laura Ingalls Wilder. While this read-aloud experience was not a complete flop, I have learned that if I allow my children the opportunity to mature and develop just a little, all kinds of interests and passions might emerge. […]
[…] story even as I had it in a stack to review here on my blog. Of course, my girls do have a predilection for pioneer stories, but because of its fun rhymes and interesting subject matter, I think this book would make a great […]
[…] to this highly anticipated situation, Steady Eddie and I had a chance to watch something besides Little House on the Prairie. After I read Cry, the Beloved Country, I knew I wanted to watch the movie. I loved the […]
[…] picture book hunting-and-gathering expedition, but this time, due to my girls’ ever growing love affair with all things prairie, I couldn’t resist. This story was sort of a surprise to me; what I thought was a simple […]
[…] about the book, but rather the audiobook. Lulu and Louise got several audiobooks for Christmas. The Little House audiobooks are daily fare here at the House of Hope. In fact, I often have to limit the amount of time Lulu gets to listen each day (is this wrong?) […]
[…] room as the tree, as is the case at our house) come Christmas morning. I thought this would be a short-lived obsession, but it’s still going strong. I honestly think four-and-a-half year old Lulu (and sometimes […]
[…] book. (If you haven’t been reading here at Hope Is the Word for very long, you can read here and here about our Laura-obsession.) Never mind the fact that they listen to at least an […]
[…] died a startling death one evening a month or two ago while we were enjoying an episode of Little House on the Prairie, or I would plop my girls in front of Miss Patty Cake or some DVD we’d recently borrowed from […]