Sunday, February 16, 2020

Old Town in the Green Groves by Cynthia Rylant

I had never heard of this book until this week.  Written by noted children's author Cynthia Rylant, it is intended to fill in the Ingalls family's years in Burr Oak, Iowa, that Laura Ingalls Wilder did not include in her books.

Over the years many attempts have been made to write other series about the Ingalls family (the Rose books by Roger Lea MacBride, the Caroline years books, and others).  This is probably as successful as any - which means to say, still not Laura's precise work.

The tone is similar to Laura's, although phrases are used, such as "pretty good," that Laura probably would not have used.  The book is not nearly as fleshed out.  I read it in under half an hour.  Because of not being fleshed out, the pacing moves very quickly.  The information and illustrations are nice.  It's just not a Little House book.

Which leads me to what really bothered me about this book.  Note the back cover pictured underneath.  This book has been placed in the chronological order of the Little House series.  I think that that is very presumptuous and disrespectful of Laura's work.  While the effort to fill in the gap is fine, the book does not belong in this middle of the listing of the well-known series.

This review will be linked at the end of the month to the Laura Ingalls Wilder February reading challenge on Stray Thoughts.

2 comments:

Barbara Harper said...

That is presumptuous to put this book in the middle of Laura's set! Unless maybe they were just trying to show where this story took place in the chronology. But I hope they don't start including it as part of the LH set.

Anonymous said...

Barbara, I can't say for sure, but the top of the back cover says "Read all of the Little House books." It looks like it's being inserted as part of the step. I agree. Presumptuous and not quite truthful. --Ann