Laura Ingalls Wilder

Children's Literature

Fans of the Little House books will be delighted to learn more about Wilder from this short biography in the "My Favorite Writer" series. While her early life is recounted in her own books, Laura's later life will be of interest to middle readers, as will the photographs of Laura's parents and sisters, her beloved husband Almanzo, and their daughter Rose. The text tells something of Wilder's farm life and her decision to begin writing about life in an earlier America, also offering information about visiting museums and festivals related to Wilder's life and work, including the Wilders' Rocky Ridge Farm in Missouri. Her most popular books are summarized, along with information on the awards they have won. For the aspiring writer's benefit, the publishers include tips on writing a biography review and introduce a model of a concept web, but the most insightful section features some of Laura's own ideas about writing. And while a web can be a useful pre-writing tool, teachers may prefer to introduce this idea themselves at an appropriate time in their writing curriculum. For a fuller picture of Wilder's life, readers will surely want to read Wilder's own autobiographical works, On the Way Home (the diary of her trip by wagon from South Dakota to Missouri in 1894), and West from Home, her letters from San Francisco to Almanzo in 1915 during the Panama-Pacific Exposition. Included in each volume of the series are glossaries of writing terms and of words specific to each subject. 2003, Weigl, Ages 9 to 12.
—Barbara L. Talcroft

School Library Journal

Gr 2-4-These titles incorporate writing tips and the same spread on writing a biography "review" (in actuality, a book report) into extremely basic introductions to famous writers. The flowchart of the publishing process and the list of writing terms are also repeated in all four titles, but not all of the terms are used within the body of each one. Each double-page chapter includes clear, captioned illustrations, mostly in color. However, many of the pictures are simply filler. For example, Dahl features a full waste basket: "Roald often rewrote his stories many times before he was happy with his work." Seuss shows a photo of three pen tips accompanied by the caption, "Ted decided to start writing books for children when he was about 30 years old." Blume includes a picture of a rolled-up diploma and a graduation cap next to a sentence that tells what high school the writer attended. The caption for the map in Seuss describes Massachusetts as being surrounded by five New England states; Maine is mentioned but is not shown. The series' focus is on using biographies to teach writing. As such, these books might find a use in classrooms, but they're too limited to serve general readers or report writers.-Kathleen Simonetta, Indian Trails Public Library District, Wheeling, IL Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.