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If you asked me to find a symbol of my childhood I would hand you a copy of a well-worn, taped together, yellowing “Little House in the Big Woods.” The entire series is on the shelf in the library at my parent’s house but this was the book that started it all. It says $3.50 in the top left-hand  corner but this book is worth so much to me.

My Mother first read the book to me and my brother when I was too little to make a lot of sense out of what was being read. We loved being read to and these were her favorite books as a child as well. The first memories I have of this book and of my life are simply of cuddling with my Mum and brother. I enjoyed hearing my Mum read and the simple joy of being together with my family as we read about another family. A family from 1870 and beyond came to life in our house in 1980 and beyond.

The constant sibling fights and my brother’s endless need to pick at me to make me squawk became suspended while we listened to my Mother’s voice. We begged her to read the books constantly. A few years later, after the first reading through of the books I requested that she read them to me again. My brother sat through the entire re-reading of the series. By the time she read the books through again I was ready to start at the beginning and read them myself! I have no idea how many times I read these pages or listened to my Mum bring the words to life. Sometimes we would all be under the covers at night but my favorite times were when we sat in the living room by our own woodstove. I could imagine myself being Laura that much easier with the setting of the fire in front of me. I was a farm girl and Laura Ingalls Wilder was my hero. The way the Laura is staring lovingly down at the doll in her arms on the cover of the book is exactly the way I must look gazing down at the book in my lap today.

I have set the scene for myself again.  I’ve built a fire in the fireplace and I’m snuggled in a pile of blankets to revisit why I fell in love with these books over and over. This “Once upon a time….” was the beginning of my lifelong love affair with books. Each one of the thousands of books I have picked up in the 20 years since I first heard about Laura and her sister Mary is due to the magic I found within these pages. In a way everything I have read since the Little House books has been an attempt to find the love I had for this series.

I remember so much of the books even though it has been years since I read them. I remember being horrified by them being excited on slaughtering day because they would get a pig tail and Pa would blow up the pig’s bladder for them to use as a ball. That was a lesson for me and my brother… children happy to have a blown up bladder to play with. I remember pretending to be them as they played in their attic in the winter months surrounded by the food that was being stored for the winter. I vaguely recall begging my father to grow big pumpkins so I could sit on them like tables and chairs like Laura and Mary did. If I sit and think about it so much of their stories come back to me. They are beautifully written and all the more engaging for children when you talk about how this was the author’s childhood. She had not only an interesting story to tell but knew how to tell it. Clearly Laura inherited Pa’s gift for telling stories. Opening any page pulls up how she creates vivid images with her words, “They were cosy and comfortable in their little house made of logs, with the snow drifted around it and the wind crying because it could not get in by the fire.”

Someday, when I am blessed with a family of my own I will start reading the series to them. Since my own children are many years in the future I will content myself with reading them to other peoples children. This summer I have the pleasure of fulltime care of an eight year old farm girl. She’s not hooked on books yet but my plan is to read the series to her over the summer and see where it takes us. I have a feeling she will fall in love. I certainly fell in love with Little House in the Big Woods. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some reading to do.