Maria D. Wilkes

A little boy dreams of scary monsters but his mother has the perfect solution - put them all to work! The scary witch does the laundry, the many-legged spider cleans the kitchen, and so on. Finally, the little boy is ready to sleep. Alixandra Martin's mixed media illustrations shift perfectly from the looming darkness of the little boy's room, in shades of blue, black and gray, to the bright colors of the industrious monsters and the little boy's delight in their antics. Parents who don't show more have bedtime problems probably will want to skip this one - who wants to give the kiddos ideas? But if you've got an irrepressible bed hopper, this just might do the trick. Recommended show less

Hm. I've been reading from a box of donations* several books about Laura's ancestors. Again, it's fascinating to learn the history, especially the strategies for housekeeping.

I was disturbed in this one that, when rich girls saw Martha's bare feet at church they taunted her for being 'a poor country girl' and Caroline defended her, saying 'She's just as good as you!' Um - being judged for how well you can afford to dress? Yuck.

This one did seem to be more about Martha than about Caroline - show more but then she is older and has a more vibrant personality. I'm actually glad the donations included the next two Caroline books and look forward to actually learning more about M & C.

*donations to my OBCZ, my 'Official BookCrossing Zone' which is a bookshelf at a smoothie shop where I put out, to share, books that have been registered at www.bookcrossing.com. It's a free, fun hobby that helps me pass on the books I'm done reading to get them off my shelves. show less

Martha is still a more interesting character - I actually do want to keep reading the series to learn about her. I suppose that, by making Caroline (and, really, all the little girls in these different series) rather generic, the little girls reading them can identify with them, empathize with them, better.

I also have a small nit to pick - it's highly unlikely that the books mentioned would have made it to Brookfield the year they did - they were very-newly published. I could be wrong, as show more Wilkes did more research than I, but if Caroline did indeed have access to these stories she was a very lucky girl.

ETA - I almost forgot a bigger problem I had with this - the massacre of the passenger pigeons! Yes, I know, at the time it was what was done. But it still seems wasteful. Especially because a lot of carcasses were abandoned on the town's streets, and the hogs were brought in to eat them up - pretty gruesome stuff for a book like this! show less

Meet Caroline Quiner, the little girl who would grow up to be Laura Ingall's mother.

It's 1845 in the bustling frontier town of Brookfield, Wisconsin. Five-year-old Caroline lives in a frame house at the edge of town with her mother, her grandmother, and her five brothers and sisters. Caroline's father was lost at sea the year before, and the close-knit family is struggling to cope without him. Each day brings Caroline new responsibilities and new adventures as she strives to help Mother all show more she can. And though this first year on their own also brings Caroline and her family great hardship, they survive with courage and love. show less