Caroline Fraser’s Pulitzer-winning biography, Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, offers a thorough, thoughtful, and timely examination of Wilder’s life, and how her novels represent a blend of fact and fiction. Debates about medals aside, I would argue that a more complete understanding of Wilder’s life and times enhances, rather than detracts from, the magic of her books, and the lessons they permit us to teach our kids about the Gospel.
I reviewed the book for TGC, and would recommend the biography highly.
Kathryn Butler 
You wrote an excellent review. Beautiful writing. I live in South Dakota now for 7 years. The wind drives me mad. It’s nearly every day, whooshing through my windows, even in summer. The trees grow crooked (what trees will grow) from the constant wind. The grasshoppers wipe out my kale and make evening walks frustrating (SO many grasshoppers jump all over you–it’s kind of icky feeling) and frighten my youngest (It’s JUST a grasshopper. Okay, it’s just hundreds of grasshoppers…). The frequent, unpredictable hail storms dent our cars. Anyhow. The natural environment is tough.
I read Little House to my girls just before moving from South Carolina to here. As I live here, some of the passages just scream in my brain.
Terri F
LikeLike
Wow! What an amazing perspective, for your kids to have, having read the books and now to live in the same environment. Thanks for the kind feedback, Terri. Blessings to you and your family.
LikeLike