NEW Sugar Snow - Wilder, Laura Ingalls/ Ettlinger, Dori

A cold snap late in winter allows a pioneer girl and her family to enjoy the rich sugar candy made from maple tree sap.

Four of the autobiographical novels of Laura Ingalls Wilder served as the basic source material for this made-for-TV movie. Covering some of the same ground as the Wilder-inspired TV series LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, the film stars Meredith Monroe as 19th-century teenager Laura Ingalls, who at the beginning of the story is still living on her South Dakota family farm with her father (Richard Thomas), mother (Lindsay Crouse), and three siblings. Acknowledging her dad's insistence that she has "the wandering strain, " Laura yearns for life beyond the prairie, but is obliged to accept a nearby schoolteaching position to help support her loved ones. After her marriage to homesteader Almanzo Wilder (Walt Goggins), Laura endures the usual trials and tribulations of life as a farmer's wife, further complicated by the loss of her first child and a raging diphtheria epidemic. Yet, somehow, Laura and Almanzo survive their many ordeals with renewed hope for the future. Tess Harper, cast as the "older" Laura, narrates t

Step back in time and visit the people and places Laura Ingalls Wilder knew and loved! Capturing the world of 100 years ago, biographical insights interspersed with stunning color images of farmland, family photographs, pictures of memorabilia, and scenes of restored Ingalls and Wilder houses make this a must-have for Laura fans and American history buffs! 119 pages, softcover from HarperPerennial.

Free Worldwide Delivery : Sugar Snow : Paperback : HarperCollins Publishers Inc : 9780064435710 : 0064435717 : 23 Apr 2003 : Laura is delighted when snow falls in early spring in the Big Woods of Wisconsin. A late snow helps the trees make sap for maple sugar, and maple sugar means sweet sugar cakes for Laura.

"I understand that in my own life, I represented a whole period of American history." As Laura Ingalls Wilder realized they would, her widely loved stories of her prairie childhood have become much more than a nostalgic blend of myth, memories, and autobiography. Historically, John Miller reveals, they have much to tell us about the realities of day-to-day living and attitudes in the nineteenth century. History and literature are closely intertwined, Miller contends, and in this book he illustrates how Wilder's novels enhance our understanding of history and how, simultaneously, a historical perspective framed Wilder's fiction. Wilder, he shows, interwove content and form to produce a sentimental and compelling, yet nuanced and believable, picture of family life on the agricultural frontier. Focusing on Wilder's novels set in and around De Smet, South Dakota, which include By the Shores of Silver Lake and Little Town on the Prairie, Miller compares her fictional world to history recorded in census figures, newspaper accounts, county records, maps, and photographs. He illustrates that, although Wilder sacrificed some historical details for simplicity and drama, she preserved a general accuracy of people, places, events, and customs and depicted many facets of late nineteenth-century life, from food and entertainment to work ethics and education. Miller also addresses the controversy over the authorship of the eight novels attributed to Wilder--was she the true author or were they ghostwritten by her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane? He contends that while Lane's editorial contribution was of great value, the voice in the book belongs to Wilder. The books are filled with her interpretations of the truth as influenced by the time period in which she grew up and the culture--the institutions, gossip, informal community pressure, media, stories, songs, roles, and stereotypes--that surrounded her. Providing a glimpse of prairie life through the eyes of a young girl, Wilder's novels are as historically valid as their nonfiction cousins, Miller argues. Hers is a lived history--a sometimes romantic, sometimes observational account of the joys and frustrations of life on the prairie and a reflection of the westward movement in its prime.

Before Wilder found fame with her Little House books, she made a name for herself with short nonfiction pieces in magazines and newspapers. This volume collects essays that originally appeared in the Missouri Ruralist between 1911 and 1924. Building on the initial compilation entitled Little House in the Ozarks, this revised edition adds forty-two additional articles and restores passages previously omitted from others. Wilder advises women of her generation on such timeless issues as how to be an equal partner with their husbands, how to support the new freedoms they d won with the right to vote, and how to maintain important family values in their changing world. Yet she also discusses such practical matters as how to raise chickens and save time on household tasks. Hines s introduction places the essays in their biographical and historical context, showing how they present Wilder s unique perspective on life and politics during the World War I era while commenting on the challenges of surviving and thriving in the rustic Ozark hill country.

Four of the autobiographical novels of Laura Ingalls Wilder served as the basic source material for this made-for-TV movie. Covering some of the same ground as the Wilder-inspired TV series LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, the film stars Meredith Monroe as 19th-century teenager Laura Ingalls, who at the beginning of the story is still living on her South Dakota family farm with her father (Richard Thomas), mother (Lindsay Crouse), and three siblings. Acknowledging her dad's insistence that she has "the wandering strain, " Laura yearns for life beyond the prairie, but is obliged to accept a nearby schoolteaching position to help support her loved ones. After her marriage to homesteader Almanzo Wilder (Walt Goggins), Laura endures the usual trials and tribulations of life as a farmer's wife, further complicated by the loss of her first child and a raging diphtheria epidemic. Yet, somehow, Laura and Almanzo survive their many ordeals with renewed hope for the future. Tess Harper, cast as the

Laura's family's first home in Minnesota is made of sod, but Pa builds a clean new house made of sawed lumber beside Plum Creek. The money for materials will come from their first wheat crop. Then, just before the wheat is ready to harvest, a strange glittering cloud fills the sky, blocking out the sun. Soon millions of grasshoppers cover the field and everything on the farm. In a week's time, there is no wheat crop left at all.On the Banks of Plum Creek is the fourth book in the Laura Years series.

Before Wilder found fame with her Little House books, she made a name for herself with short nonfiction pieces in magazines and newspapers. This volume collects essays that originally appeared in the Missouri Ruralist between 1911 and 1924. Building on the initial compilation entitled Little House in the Ozarks, this revised edition adds forty-two additional articles and restores passages previously omitted from others. Wilder advises women of her generation on such timeless issues as how to be an equal partner with their husbands, how to support the new freedoms they d won with the right to vote, and how to maintain important family values in their changing world. Yet she also discusses such practical matters as how to raise chickens and save time on household tasks. Hines s introduction places the essays in their biographical and historical context, showing how they present Wilder s unique perspective on life and politics during the World War I era while commenting on the challenges of surviving and thriving in the rustic Ozark hill country.

The Little House® books by Laura Ingalls Wilder are famed for their compelling stories of life on the frontier of the 1860s-80s. By tracing her family’s history Wilder expressed the trials and triumphs of those who attempted to carve a place for themselves and their families out of the expanse of the American West. Too little noted is the music referenced in the books, some 126 separate songs and tunes. By the Shores of Silver Lake contains mention of 37 songs; These Happy Golden Years is titled after a song; and six of the books close with music making. The music Wilder employed in the service of her narrative is some of the very finest in the history of American music. Throughout, the guiding musical spirit is Laura’s father, Charles "Pa" Ingalls, who sang and played fiddle. It’s "Pa’s fiddle" that accompanies the Ingalls family through its adventures and comes to symbolize the endurance of the family unit in a wild and threatening frontier world. Happy Land is a selection of Laura’s "old songs." The producers—Dale Cockrell, a professor of musicology and American music expert, and Butch Baldassari, master mandolinist and producer, were challenged to take the old songs of yesterday and make them new and engaging for audiences today. An old song both starts and ends the recording. There are no recordings of Pa’s playing (he died in 1902), but in his stead is the music of fiddler "Jep" Bisbee, who was born only eight years after Pa and, amazingly, just fifty miles from Ingalls’ birthplace. Other songs, hymns, and tunes on Happy Land are reinterpreted by some of the nation’s finest and most respected musicians, cognizant of their debt to the past but keenly aware of their responsibilities to the present.