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The "Pioneer Girl Project" of the South Dakota Historical Society Press just published a statement about the ALA's deletion of Wilder's name from the award. Here's the link to their statement: https://pioneergirlproject.org/2018/...-wilder-award/
One of the excellent things about this statement is that it provides a link to John E. Miller’s article “American Indians in the Fiction of Laura Ingalls Wilder” which was originally published in the journal South Dakota History.
I like their concluding sentence: "It is better to study than to seek to erase an important legacy like Wilder’s."
What are some of the things that bother you, if any, in the Little House books?
I don't have any problems with the books. They were products of an earlier time and sensibilities have changed since the books were written, but I don't think it's right to apply "enlightened" standards retroactively and just disappear the books from the shelves and their authors from history. It definitely merits discussion and new readers should be told that the books were reflective of the time period in which the story took place, and maybe new readers could get a bit of broader education about that time period.
The "Pioneer Girl Project" of the South Dakota Historical Society Press just published a statement about the ALA's deletion of Wilder's name from the award. Here's the link to their statement: https://pioneergirlproject.org/2018/...-wilder-award/
One of the excellent things about this statement is that it provides a link to John E. Miller’s article “American Indians in the Fiction of Laura Ingalls Wilder†which was originally published in the journal South Dakota History.
I like their concluding sentence: "It is better to study than to seek to erase an important legacy like Wilder’s."
Read the Miller article; it's really interesting!
Thanks for sharing! I shared it on Facebook to raise awareness.
I don't agree with taking her name off the award. I mean, think of how offensive Huckleberry Finn and Gone with the Wind are? And who in their right mind would ban those books? I think if you talk about how the Little House books offends minorities, they also must offend women with their everlasting talk of women having to be quiet, gentle and stoic, which Laura herself in real life definitely was not. But as a woman, I am in no way offended by how the books think a woman should act.
There was an incident in The First Four Years in which Laura slaps an Indian. The incident didn't happen to her, but to a cousin or friend of hers. The story isn't disturbing to me (I think that's a teachable moment right there), but Garth Williams did a picture in the books showing Laura slapping the Indian. I didn't think that needed to be included.
The things that disturb me more are the emphasis Laura puts on how upright and standing her father is, and ignores the fact that he took off with the family from Burr Oak in the middle of the night to avoid paying his debts. And also how Laura claims they never took anything off of anyone and yet, Dakota Territory paid for her blind sister's college and just the act of benefiting from free land given to settlers was a form of charity, not to mention the number of times Laura mentions the charity given to her from people back east, like the presents at Christmas on Plum Creek and the Christmas barrel they received after the Hard Winter.
I can't remember if this is in the books but on the series, I was always mortified when Ma left 7-8 year old Laura to babysit baby Carrie. And they had a fireplace.
Last edited by 4dognight; 07-10-2018 at 08:49 PM..
^^That wasn't unusual when I was growing up on a farm. I'm pretty sure I was baking cakes on my own by 8.
Yes, but to babysit a baby when you are 6-8 seems scary. I'm sure that children were more responsible and capable back then. They were about survival so I'm sure they grew up quickly.
Yes, but to babysit a baby when you are 6-8 seems scary. I'm sure that children were more responsible and capable back then. They were about survival so I'm sure they grew up quickly.
I feel so old when I hear "back then." I'm 56 and "back then" to me was yesterday so I must be pretty old as I can remember being annoyed when "old people" back then talked about their "back then" as if it was yesterday and somehow relevant.
I was definitely babysitting at those ages if babysitting means when my mother needed to go to the barn or to the garden or to my dad's place of business to bring him lunch and I was told to look after my younger siblings (I was the oldest) while she did that. I'm pretty sure I was changing diapers like an expert by the time I was eight (I would have had 3 younger siblings by then) although I remember refusing to change "number two" diapers and my mother did that. I'm sure I was burping babies by eight, and probably sooner, while sitting in the rocking chair with a pillow there to prop up my arm.
And my mother was a very good mother, not a careless mother at all. She was very careful in how she taught us to hold babies, and where their soft spot was, and using pillows to prop up our arms, and how to test milk from a bottle on our wrist to make sure it wasn't too warm.
My mother considered leaving children in day cares to be just awful. I was a kid at the cusp of the change in stay-at-home mothers and working mothers.
Speaking of old, I saw a pair of faded jeans with flower embroidery and I wondered if I was too old for them.
One day I will have to explain that we used to have fun without cell phones, although I think we may already be at that point. A card I saw said something like this: "I asked my father what they did for fun before cell phones when he was a kid and he asked his seventeen brothers and sisters and they didn't know either."
I can't remember if this is in the books but on the series, I was always mortified when Ma left 7-8 year old Laura to babysit baby Carrie. And they had a fireplace.
Usually Mary and Laura (together) would watch Carrie and Grace.
Think of this...Laura got her teaching certificate at 15.
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And they had a fireplace.
I'm pretty sure I was baking cakes on my own by 8.
I'm 56 and "back then" to me was yesterday so I must be pretty old as I can remember being annoyed when "old people" back then talked about their "back then" as if it was yesterday and somehow relevant. 
