Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Book Review 40: Mary Ingalls On Her Own by Elizabeth Kimmel Willard

Reading Little House on the Prairie books takes me back to younger days. Not as young as you might think though. I didn't read the books when I was a little girl. To me, the tv show is what I think of. In high school, I remember being home during the summer with my brother and watching the show on tv every morning. My brother and I loved Nellie and all the town folk. And we made fun of Pa's idiosyncracies and Laura's brothers that showed up towards the end of the series. It was just a part of my summers with my brother. I think that we probably watched when I was younger, middle school even, because for some reason I remember when we'd play with my Barbies, we'd drive them out in their cars in front of the tv and pretend they were at the drive-in movies, and I seem to remember watching Little House on the Prairie one time. Now, I tried reading the books after I'd discovered the show, but the books are always just so simple. When you were reading at the age of 3, like I was, they were just too babyish for me. I'd like to go back now, now that I can appreciate them for what they are and that I know more of the whole "history" of Laura Ingalls Wilder. But that will wait till when I have some extra time. Whenever that happens.

This book is about Mary when she goes off to the college for the blind in Iowa. It's short, and sweet, and of course different from the tv show. At the end it goes into what they know is real for the book, and other details about Mary's life. I'm guessing I need to read some more historical books on this as what I saw on the tv show I know is not all reality. For instance it doesn't talk about Mary ever getting married, yet on the show she did. I figured they did change a lot of the story on the show, but didn't know that they changed that much. Oh well. Live and learn. It just intrigues me to read more.

Next book I'm starting today is The Bronze Pen by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Not sure if I've read any books by this author, I'm familiar with them because we have them at the store I work at. Some of the titles sound familiar, but can't remember for sure if I read them.

Oh yeah, only 10 more books to go! Then November, National Novel Writing Month, not to mention re-reading New Moon and the rest of the Twilight series to get ready for the new movie!! After which I intend to go through and read the whole rest of the Sookie Stackhouse series.