Wednesday, January 03, 2007

On The Banks Of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Ages 5-13

The Laura Ingalls Wilder series chronicling her childhood in the midwest and plain states seems a "staple" of every young girls literary diet, but it is not the parental instruction guide on raising Godly children that I thought it might be!

Don't get me wrong -- it is very honest and delightfully informative, and I appreciate that. However, I was surprised and disappointed about a couple of episodes in the early chapters of the book in which Laura's sin was not adequately addressed. That fact would not preclude me from reading this or other books in the series, but I would plan on breaking for discussion.

This series is fun for young girls, but older girls can enjoy it tremendously as well with the additional publications made available in the form of timelines and cataloges.

I give this series a grade of "B."

4 comments:

Brenda said...

I haven't read this particular book in the series to my girls...but the one I did read had great lessons on obeying. There are a lot of situations in which Laura and Mary needed to obey the very instant they were told to in order to stay safe. Big eyes from my girls! We had a great discussion about obeying first and asking questions later.

Hans Georg Lundahl said...

When I was pre-teen I used to have a calf-love for Mary Ingalls, but later on the actress for Laura became prettier. And yes, I do like the real author as well, but she's both married and dead, so I can't really fall in love with her.

Hans Georg Lundahl said...

I may add: the real books are better than the television series. I mean, they were like bringing up kids. If they had wanted and thought appropriate, they might have sobered an alcoholic, but it was not their primary business, and adding that to the teleseries was just so as to fill in empty space, waiting for the actresses to grow old enough to continue. Also the Olesons are way too bad in the teleseries.

lindafay said...

I agree- had to use some whiteout in this book for my young readers. But other than those few passages, I liked the book very much.