Tracy Chevalier's Bookshelf

'Little House in the Big Woods' by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little House in the Big Woods
By Laura Ingalls Wilder

This marked the start of my love affair with books. A fictionalization of Wilder's life with her family in a log cabin in 19th-century Wisconsin, the Little House series utterly captured my imagination. We started a Laura Ingalls Wilder club at my local library, and I was its most enthusiastic member. I—and I suspect most girls— particularly identified with Laura, the feisty heroine, who was always getting into trouble (unlike her perfect older sister, Mary). Once, Laura collected so many pretty stones from a lakeshore that her bulging dress pocket fell off and she was scolded for being greedy. I could totally relate to that, and I was also fascinated that a dress pocket could come off. It was the first time I connected with a world very different from my own.