PRAIRIE FIRES

The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
by Caroline Fraser
 
Caroline Fraser has written a fascinating biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Using precious little autobiographical information left by Wilder and supplementing it with a similarly small amount left by her daughter, Fraser adroitly weaves a compelling tale of Wilder’s life. She explains how Wilder came to write her beloved Little House on the Prairie series in the midst of the Great Depression when she herself was in her mid-sixties.
 
Fraser follows several interesting threads throughout the book.  She compares Ingalls' actual life as a child whose family moved often, had little money and struggled mightily to the family portrayed in her books.  This family struggled too, but always came across as shiny and optimistic.  Fraser also tackles the interesting and ongoing debate about whether Wilder actually wrote the books and how much her daughter contributed.
 
Prairie Fires is chock-a-block full of interesting stories about life in a family that repeatedly moved to unsettled territory on the plains and prairies of the midwest and western territories.  It brought me back to the days of reading the Little House series to my children – but with the overlay of information about Wilder that I didn’t know.  Fraser’s biography will captivate and entertain you. (Liz)

A SECOND HELPING

This book sat on my shelf for a long time--my mom reviewed it in 2019. I always need to psych myself up to read non-fiction. But in this case, I also felt like I knew the story. I was a huge Little House on the Prairie fan as a kid, and I learned a lot about her real life then too.  All that said, I highly recommend this book. There is so much more to her story than what she put in her fictional children’s novels. What Fraser does so brilliantly is weave together Laura’s true story with the history of the country and pioneering, while also referencing Wilder's books. She doesn’t just mention them during the years Wilder was writing, but compares the novels to the actual facts of Wilder's life. This is a must-read for anyone who grew up wishing she could wear a sun bonnet. (Lily)