Caroline: Little House, Revisited by Sarah Miller
Summary:
- In Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series, Caroline Ingalls, "Ma," was always a pillar of strength to her family. Although her courage and love for her family remains steadfast in this retelling of Little House on the Prairie from her own perspective, we get to see what is going on in her mind as the Ingalls family leaves the Big Woods of Wisconsin to settle in Kansas. Caroline is anxious about the trip, her nervousness about leaving her family amplified by her realization that she is pregnant and will have to deliver her child surrounded by only her husband, children, and possible strangers. Because Laura Ingalls Wilder edited her own history for her books for children, this book provides a slightly more accurate and interesting view into pioneer life at the time, though fans of the original series will delight in comparing it to the original telling. Events that took place in Wilder's book, such as the fording of the river when Jack the bulldog was almost lost and the threat from Native Americans whose land the Ingalls family had invaded, feel more authentic from the perspective of an adult narrator who fully understands the dangers of the frontier.
Historical Fiction Characteristics:
- Wealth of accurate detail.
- Narrow focus on one family and journey.
- The characters fit their time period and are shaped by it.
- Large focus on setting and world.
- Slower, leisurely pace.
Read-a-Likes:
- True Sisters by Sandra Dallas
- Maria Ines by Anne Schroeder
- Into the Savage Country by Shannon Burke
Reader's Opinion:
- I was a fan of the Little House books as a child, so reading this was a wonderful experience for me as an adult. Shifting my perspective on things was also an interesting time since Wilder did shift around the timeline of her family- despite the fact that baby Carrie is in the first Little House book, records show that she was born in Kansas, so I appreciated having a more accurate historical depiction. Because this book is written from a woman's perspective in a time when a woman's voice tended to be less prominent than that of her husband, I enjoyed getting into the mind and daily life of Caroline and really liked the amount of detail the book provided. I would definitely recommend this to a patron interested in the genre, or one who was a fan of Wilder's books as a child.
This title keeps popping up in my Goodreads feed, and I'm glad you did an annotation on it! I honestly just skimmed past all of the updates when I saw them, because there are many times a revisiting won't end well. I too read the Little House books as a kid, and didn't necessarily want my enjoyment of them to be lessened. But I like the idea of a more authentic perspective of events through an adults eyes instead of a child, and the more accurate timeline.
ReplyDeleteHi Amy! What an interesting choice for your historical fiction choice. I read both a historical fiction and a western this week and it sounds like you read both genres in one book. I've always liked Caroline so this book sounds very appealing. Did you feel the author wrote in the tone of Laura Ingalls Wilder? I know this book is from an adult perspective, but could you imagine Wilder writing this book?
ReplyDeleteI was a big fan of this book as well. It made me want to re-read the whole series! I did read Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder as well, which was a great nonfiction read. Full points!
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