My Little House on the Prairie story

Jennie from A Teacher’s Reflections blog wrote a wonderful post about Little House on the Prairie. This must be my all time favourite series of books and this was the style of writing and story that I aimed for when I wrote my book, While the Bombs Fell. You can read Jennie’s post here: https://jenniefitzkee.com/2019/05/24/from-little-house-on-the-prairie-to-geography-to-maps-to-mount-rushmore-to-history-and-more/

When I was a little girl, I was totally captivated by these stories. At the time, I only had the first three books in the series but the television series was also airing weekly on South African television, so my sister and I got a weekly dose of this amazing story during our one hour television hour, as well as me reading the book to myself and to Cath, over and over again.

I wanted to be just like Laura. I was eight years old at the time and we were living in a house in Jukskei Park in Johannesburg. This suburb hardly existed at the time and our house was one of two on a long dirt road that wove its way through the area. I used to lead my sister, Cath, who was four at the time, in an on-going live play-story where we were Laura and Carrie from the story. My mother made us each a long dress for the purpose of playing this game and we each had a pair of boots. My dress was red with tiny flowers all over it and Cath’s was a pale gauzy yellow. When she didn’t want to play the game, I borrowed hers and wore it under mine as a petticoat. I could never persuade my mother to make me a real petticoat. My mother used to plait my hair in two braids, just like Laura, with ribbons tied on the ends. You can see this in the picture of me above.

I begged my mother to help me make a bonnet which I designed myself. She gave me the  material and helped me pin it together and I sewed it by hand. I also made a nightcap in the same way. I was always a very determined person. I recall packing sandwiches for Cath and I into plastic beach buckets (which served as the tin lunch pails from the book) and off we would scamper into the veld to play our game. We would play all morning and have our picnic snack while we were out.

We had so many hours of pleasure playing this game and this book series has always been close to my heart. I read it to both my boys when they were small and I re-read it myself every now and again. I have the whole set now, of course.

Did you read any book that captivated your and which you played for hours when you were younger?