So Big by Edna Ferber

 

Title:  So Big

Author:  Edna Ferber

Narrated by:  Laura Merlington

Publisher: Dreamscape Media

Length: Approximately 10 hours and 12 minutes

Source: Checked out with Hoopla through the Kewaunee Public Library.  Thank-you.

What classic book have you enjoyed rereading?  I enjoy rereading many classic novels, but I thought it was fun to reread a recent favorite, So Big by Edna Ferber for my Back to the Classics Book Club back in April.

So Big by Edna Ferber is the tale of Selina Peake.  She is orphaned at age 19 in the late 1880s in Chicago.  She takes a job as a schoolteacher in the Dutch farming community, High Prairie.  She finds beauty in life and marries a farmer, Pervus DeJong.  She dreams of their son, Dirk, finding both success and beauty in life.  She has affectionately nicknamed him “So Big” from telling him as a child, “how big is baby, so big.”  Will Selina and Dirk both fulfill their dreams?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       Edna Ferber wrote beautifully.  It was an enjoyable audiobook listening to the beautiful descriptions and language read aloud.

·       I loved the basket auction and how it was beginning of the love story between Selina and Pervus DeJong.  It reminded me of the basket auction in Oklahoma!

·       The description of farming and life in that time was vivid.  It was an interesting description of the history of Chicago.

·       The novel referenced an “agricultural course” in Madison that Selina wants to take, not Dirk.  The City of Milwaukee was also referenced.  Living in Wisconsin, I thought this was interesting.  Author Edna Ferber grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin.

·       The theme of the book for me was that you can work hard and make a success of your own life, but your children, who had an easier time than you, and their distance from the hard work, may not be fully living their lives.

·       Should you live your life for art and beauty or for making the most money?  What is a successful life?

·       I liked how Dirt thought he would instantly start as a famous architect, and he didn’t like the mundane work of a beginning architect.

·       So Big won the Pulitzer Prize for 1925 and was also the bestselling book of the year.

·       So Big provided an interesting discussion for the Back to the Classics Book Club.

Overall, So Big by Edna Ferber is a lesser-known classic that deals with timeless issues.  It deserves to still be read and enjoyed today.  I highly recommend it.

The Museum of Lost Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini (Bibliolifestyle Book Tour)

 

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @williammorrowbooks for the review copy of The Museum of Lost Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini.

Do you quilt?  Quilting is something I’ve always wanted to do, but it is going to have to wait until my kids are out of the house.  

Summer Sullivan has returned to Elm Creek Manor for the summer.  She is hoping the manor will help her with her writer’s block so that she can finish her master’s degree in history.  While there, Summer discovers that antique quilts have been found in the old Union Hall building built in 1863.  The Waterford Historical Society is headquartered there, but a local developer wants to rip down the historic structure.  As Summer researches the antique quilts and history of the town, she discovers unsettling secrets from the towns past.  The local leaders want these secrets taken out of the antique quilt exhibit as they don’t show the community in a positive light.  Will Summer be able to save Union Hall and keep the antique quilt exhibit open, while keeping true to the town’s history?  Will she be able to finish her master’s degree?

My thoughts on the book:

·       This is the 22^nd book in the Elm Creek Quilts series.  I read the last book in this series, The Christmas Boutique, but I haven’t read the rest of the series.  This book can be read as a standalone.  It gives enough background to get into the story, but I’m sure if I read the rest of the series, I would get even more out of it!  I need to start reading this series at book one.

·       Even though I am not a quilter; I find it fascinating and love reading about these women.  The women at the quilting camps at Elm Creek Manor come from all back grounds and range from master quilters to beginning quilters.

·       Elm Creek Manor and all the ladies are very welcoming.  Reading this book makes me want to go on a retreat. It was a very cozy read.

·       I also love historic buildings and the saving of them.  Elm Creek Manor itself was saved and repurposed, but I enjoyed reading about the Union Hall and the history of the antique quilts.  Summer wrote about both historical accomplishments and failures, and it caused strife in the town. I thought it was interesting to think about how sometimes when we find out that history is not all positive that we would like it to be, we want to cover it up.  I’d rather learn all the history and be able to learn from mistakes. 

·       I enjoyed reading Summer’s descriptions of the quilts that was interspersed between chapters.  The historic quilts and her search to find out their history was fascinating.  I especially loved the author’s quilt which had blocks with famous authors’ signatures from the 19^th century.  What a treasure that would be.  It made me wonder, are there quilts stored at museums or by historical societies? 

·       There is a bit of a sweet light romance in this novel as well.

·       This is a clean read.

·       Jennifer Chiaverini is a Wisconsin author based out of Madison.  She also writes wonderful historical fiction novels that I also enjoy, including her latest, The Canary Girls.

Overall, The Museum of Lost Quilts was a perfect cozy read with great characters and message.  I’ve been super busy and stressed lately and this was a perfect escapism read.

Braving the Thin Places by Julianne Stanz

 

Title:  Braving the Thin Places: Celtic Wisdom to Create a Space for Grace

Author:  Julianne Stanz

Narrated by:  Remie Michelle Clarke

Publisher: Loyola Press

Length: Approximately 4 hours and 57 minutes

Source: Purchased from Amazon.com. 

Do you have any local authors that you like to read?  I was surprised and happy to learn that an acquaintance was also an author.  I felt called to put together a children’s liturgy program at my church and I taught it for thirteen years.  Author Julianne Stanz’s children were active participants in the program, and I was always happy to see them.  Luckily I didn’t know Stanz’s position in the church or that she was a renowned speaker and writer at the time.   That would have made me nervous!

Braving the Thin Places:  Celtic Wisdom to Create a Space for Grace seemed like a perfect read for both St. Patrick’s Day and the Lenten season.  Braving the Thin Spaces is a beautiful book that really spoke to me.  It discusses our moments of being in a thin place.  What is a thin place?  “Have you ever held a loved one’s hand as they slipped from this life and into the next?  Birthed a child and felt the thin edges of God’s presence inside your being?  Beheld such beauty that it took your breath away?  Or been moved to tears by an image or a piece of music?  If so, you have stood at the edge of a thin place, a place where God and humanity meet in a mysterious way.  These moments open us to places of rawness and beauty.  Something seems to break open inside us, and words are inadequate to describe what we are experiencing.  We feel a sense of breakthrough as we break free of the ordinary and into the extraordinary.”  I think we all have had our moments of being in a thin place.

My thoughts:

·       This book had the perfect mix of Celtic tradition and wisdom, personal experience, and Christian philosophy. 

·       I would end my reading really thinking about the chapter I had just read and pair it with my personal experiences. 

·       Each chapter ended with a thoughtful page that helped you to put your thoughts together and reflect with a breaking open, breaking through, and breaking free discussion and reflection questions.  Breaking free usually also contained a Bible verse.

·       My Great Grandma was Irish, and I enjoyed the tidbits about Stanz’s native Ireland and her descriptions of Celtic traditions. 

·       As I have been doing lately, I read this as both a physical book and as an audiobook.  I listened to the audiobook while driving, but I also liked reviewing the chapter and favorite sections in the physical book.

·       It was fun when tidbits about Northeast Wisconsin were in the book as well.

·       I enjoyed the chapter on your “soul friend.”  I think everyone is a lucky person when you are able to find a “soul friend” in life.

·       I also in particular enjoyed the thoughtful chapter on prayer “Prayers change us, not God, for we are the ones in need of change.”

I feel like I am not doing this book justice, but it touched me deeply.  It also gave me a lot to reflect on and had great words of wisdom.  This will be a book that I will reread and take something new away each time.  It was the perfect book to read during the Lenten season.

 

Canary Girls by Jennifer Chiaverini (Bibliolifestyle Book Tour)

 

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @williammorrowbooks for the review copy of Canary Girls by Jennifer Chiaverini.

Do you know if any women in your family went to work during World War I or II to help in the war effort?  My Dad was recently telling me a story about how my Great Grandma Godfrey went to work in a local factory and saved the money to put indoor plumbing in their home at the end of the war.

Canary Girls is the story of three women who worked during World War I in an ammunitions factory in London.  April is a maid when she learns from her friend about the higher wages and “more fun” that she can have by moving to London to work in the ammunitions factories, so she takes her chance.  Lucy is the wife of a famous football player, Daniel, who has left to fight overseas.  She takes a job to supplement their income and help the war effort.  Helen’s husband is the owner of the Thornshire Arsenal where April and Lucy work.  She is appalled by the conditions and works to help the girls have better work conditions.  The women work with TNT and start to appear yellow and have health problems. They are nicknamed the “canary girls.”  The canary girls also start their own football team and play across the country.

I liked the three different viewpoints in this novel by three very different women from very different backgrounds.  I enjoyed their personal stories, but I was horrified by the women working with this very poisonous substance and the health impacts.  In the author’s note, it’s stated that it is unknown how many women and men were poisoned or injured due to this dangerous work in World War I.

I loved the women playing football during World War I.  It reminded me of A League of their own, but with football (soccer) and in WWI instead of WWII.  I was sad to read in the author’s note that women’s football was banned in 1921 in the UK.  It wasn’t until 1971 that women were allowed to play professionally in the UK. 

I appreciate that author Jennifer Chiaverini is able to weave together so many interesting pieces of history into one fascinating story.  There is sadness and tragedy in this story, but I enjoyed that it ended on a happy note.

I love that Jennifer Chiaverini is a Wisconsin author based in Dane County which she also states in the acknowledgements. 

Favorite quote:  “And for the grieving widows and sisters and mothers, every shell was a blow for vengeance, smoldering and bitter and full of anguish and spite.”

Once Upon a December by Amy Reichert

 

Do you like to read books that are set locally?

I was delighted to discover that Once Upon a Christmas is set in Milwaukee.   Astra Noel Snow is a librarian at a branch of the Milwaukee Public Library.  She loves her yearly tradition of joining her best friends at the Milwaukee Christmas Market.  Julemarked is a special street with many wonderful Christmas shops including a bakery that specializes in Kringles.  The Clausen brothers run the shop.  Jack Clausen loves watching Astra come to visit the shop every year.  Jack wants to ask Astra out, but he has a problem.  Julemarked is a magical place that moves around the world through the year, never guaranteed to be back in the same spot.  Every four weeks it’s a new December somewhere else in the world and Julemarked is there.  Once it leaves a location, the people there magically forget about it until it returns.  Will Jack and Astra be able to find a happily ever after?

I liked that Once Upon a December had a very unique premise.  Julemarked was a magical alley.  It all seems wonderful, especially that you are basically immortal, until you realize that to have someone from the outside join that life, you would have to give up everything that you love about your normal life.  Or if you leave Julemarked, you are also leaving the world that you love and immortality.  This makes it an interesting conundrum for dating.

I loved that Astra was a librarian and thought it was interesting learning about her job.  I also, loved all of the Wisconsin and Milwaukee references.  I have lived in Milwaukee in the past and currently live in Northeast Wisconsin.  It was fun to visualize where they were talking about in Milwaukee.  It was also fun that they bake different flavored kringles, which are a Wisconsin traditional pastry.  Does anyone outside of Wisconsin know what they are?

The only part of the book that annoyed me was how much of a door mat Astra was for her ex-husband Trent.  She was still doing his mending and basically allowing him to barge into her home at any time.  I don’t understand why she didn’t change her locks.  I was glad when she finally stood up for herself.

Overall, Once Upon a December was a fun, unique, and delightful Christmas romance. 

Review Copy from NetGalley.  Thank-you! I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

So Big by Edna Ferber

What does it mean to be a successful person?  What is the price of success?  Can we help our children too much on their way to success?  All of these topics and more are found in Edna Ferber’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, So Big.  So Big chronicles the life of Selina Peake and her son, “So Big” Dirk DeJong.  The daughter of a gambler, Selina finds herself alone at her father’s sudden death with no way to support herself.  She decides to become a teacher in the outskirts of Chicago within a Dutch community of vegetable farmers.  She tries to find the beauty in her situation and soon finds herself in love.  Will Selina be able to find her way in her new setting?  How will her choices effect the life of her son?

I picked So Big for my January book club pick for the FLICKS (Rogue) Book and Movie Club.  I have wanted to read So Big for quite some time after I learned that author Edna Ferber was born in Kalamazoo Michigan (where I was born) and grew up in Appleton Wisconsin (not far from where I live now).  She wrote many best sellers that were made into movie favorites such as Showboat, Cimarron, and Giant.  When I discovered she wrote the Pulitzer Prize winner novel of 1925, I was stunned.  Why had I not heard of this author who was writing in the Jazz age at the same time as F. Scott Fitzgerald?

I still cannot answer that question after reading So Big.  I thought it was an excellent novel that while it started in the past, it lead up to the Jazz age and was a perfect picture of what was going on in the time.  It had a lot of deep questions to think about.  Does being a bonds tradesman and making lots of money make you a successful person?  Or does enjoying life and trying to make a good living, but focusing on the beautiful?  Also, what happens to the children of the successful tycoons of the Gilded Age who didn’t have to strive for their success as their forbearers did?  I found that the messages that were in this book were as relevant today as they were back in the 1920’s.  It provided great discussion at our book club, although sadly only one other member read it besides myself.  Why is this book and Edna Ferber not part of the literary canon?  I feel that successful female authors are often left out in the past as well as today.  In her biography in the back of this edition it said in her New York Times obituary that “She was among the best-read novelist in the nation, and critics of the 1920s and ’30’s did not hesitate to call her the greatest American woman novelist of her day.”

So Big reminded me a bit of The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington which I read in a different book club in Milwaukee over ten years ago.  Both dealt with the American dream and how families deal with it through the generations, although I thought So Big did a better job.

I enjoyed the characters in this novel, but in particular Selina.  I also love how she mentored young Roelf Pool and allowed him to think beyond his hardscrabble existence as a farmer’s son.  I also loved that she always thought of the positive and how things could be improved.  She was dealt a bad hand at life more than once, but she was able to use her own ingenuity to rise above it all.  It was a good feminist story.

The story skipped around some and foreshadowed events, but I enjoyed the style of writing and her great descriptions.  I also loved that Sobig gets his nickname from the question you ask, “How Big is Baby,” “So Big!”  It was interesting that one book club member had never heard of this!

As an instructor I was intrigued when Sobig is in college and there are students that are “classified” or traditional students and “unclassified” or returning adults.  The unclassified have saved their entire adult life to finally go to college and achieve their dreams, but they are shunned by both the college and traditional students who have parents to pay for their college.  I thought it was interesting that you could raise some hogs to pay for college back in this day.  If only it were true now!

I loved the setting and seeing Chicago change through time.  I particular loved learning about the vegetable farmer industry and how it grew up to supply the needs of the city and what hard work it was getting it to the city to sell.

Some of my favorite quotes:

“But he sulked and glowered portentously and refused to answer, though her tone, when she called him So Big, would have melted the heard of any but that natural savage, a boy of ten.”  As a mother of a ten year old- this gave me a chuckle!

“Selina was to learn that the farm woman, in articulate through lack of companionship, becomes a torrent of talk when opportunity presents itself.”

Aug Hempel – “I’m out in the yards every day, in and out of the cattle pens, talking to the drovers and the herders, mixing in with the buyers.  I can tell the weight of a hog and what he’s worth just by the look at him, and a steer, too.  My son-in-law Michael Arnold sits up in the office all day in our plant, dictating letters.  His clothes they never stink of the pens like mine do .  . . Now I ain’t saying anything against him, Julie.  But I bet my grandson Eugene, if he comes into the business at all when he grows up won’t go within smelling distance of the yards.  His office I bet will be in a new office building on, say Madison Street, with a view of the lake.  Life!  You’ll be hoggin’ it all yourself and not know it.”  This was one of my favorite quotes in the book.  Aug Hempel is the father of Selina’s best friend Julie.  He was a butcher and then later became a meat packing baron.  He was disturbed that through his hard work, the next generations grow more distant from the actual work that brought them their success and maybe of enjoying life to its fullest.

Dirk – “I like it well enough, only – well, you see we leave the university architectural course thinking we’re all going to be Stanford Whites or Cass Gilberts, tossing of a Woolworth building and making yourself famous overnight.  I’ve spent all yesterday and today planning how to work space of toilets on every floor of the new office building, six stories high and shaped like a dry goods box, that’s going up on the corner of Milwaukee Avenue and Ashland, west.” – I think this is the ban of every beginning architect.

“He might have lived a thousand miles away for all he knew of the rest of Chicago – the might, roaring, swelter, pushing, screaming, and magnificent hideous steel giant that was Chicago.”

“Neat little pamphlets are written for women on the subjects of saving, investments.  ‘You are not dealing with a soulless corporation,’ said these brochures.”

Overall, So Big by Edna Ferber is a magnificent American novel and should be a must read for everyone.

Old Chevy Truck on the Prairie: Our Journey to Visit Little House Sites by Laura Gerold

In Plum Creek!

I was just questioned on what is my favorite book of all time is.  That is always a hard question as I love so many books.  There are different genres, different moods I’m in lead to me reading different books, how can you chose?  Then I thought about how many times I’ve read and enjoyed books.  If I use that metric, The Little House on the Prairie Series reigns supreme.  It was the first set of books that really captured me as a reader and made me want to read more.  I was eight years old and my Great-Grandma Kile gave me the first four books in the series.  I promptly sat down and read all of The Little House in the Big Woods.  I read the other three books and Grandma gave me the rest of the series for Christmas.  I read them over and over again and read any books I could find about early pioneers and history.  What was also wonderful was that when I would go for my yearly one week visit to Grandma in Indiana in the summer, Grandma would read the books with me.  She especially loved the romance between Almanzo and Laura.  Now that I’m a mother, I’ve read the first four books to my boys, and have read them again now with my youngest daughter. 

In July we were going to Minnesota for my niece’s baptism and I suddenly realized, we’ve been going to Minnesota for years to visit my husband’s family, but we’ve never done any touristy things.  Why not tag a couple of days on and actually get to see some of the Little House sites that I’ve been longing to see?  And so our adventure began with our 2000 Chevy pick-up truck pulling our new pop-up camper through the big woods of Wisconsin to the prairies of Minnesota.

 

One book I’ve poured over through the years is the Little House Guide Book by William Anderson.  I’ve got a signed copy from the author from Little House Days at Heritage Hill in Green Bay.  The book details all of the Wilder sites around the country with pictures, how to get there, what is good to see, and other area attractions.  I especially liked this book as you knew what to expect at the sites.  It was a great reference for our trip.

Little House in the Big Woods

Our first stop was the Little House in the Big Woods in Pepin, Wisconsin.  This was the first book that I really, really loved and now I would get to see where it all took place.  There were beautiful rolling hills and trees on our drive towards Pepin with signs of wind or tornado damage.

 Little House in the Big Woods Replica Cabin

I knew from the guidebook that the Little House cabin is a rebuilt cabin and not the original.  I also knew that it was a way stop with no furniture, and sadly no big woods around it anymore, just farm fields.  Knowing what to expect was great.  We planned our trip around the fact that we would stop for a picnic lunch at the Little House in the Big Woods on our way to Walnut Grove, Minnesota. 

The Little House in the Big Woods cabin had three rooms, the main room, bedroom, and pantry.  It also had an attic.  The attic was only half, like a loft.  I always envisioned it as a full attic when reading is the books.  Is the loft accurate or a nod to the TV series?  There was no information in the cabin to let you know.  I was struck by the smallness of the cabin.  A family of five lived here!  The Bedroom was small, but somehow fit them all in at night.  It was hard to visualize this!

 The kids in front of the fireplace inside the cabin.

There was no furniture in the cabin, except for a table and a wall of interesting information. Outside there was a covered small picnic area where we ate lunch.  There was also a historical sign and an outhouse with pit toilets to use.  There was no handle on the pump of fresh water.  The area directly around the cabin was all rolling hills and fields.  The kids kept saying, “Where are the big woods??”  I found it very peaceful and interesting.  I was excited to finally see it after wanting to see it since I was eight years old.  What surprised me is that I didn’t realize how rolling the area would be.  I can see why Pa wanted to move.  Besides the many trees he had to clear, there wasn’t much farmable area with the rolling hills.

 Historical marker

 Picnic area

After we ate lunch, we drove into Pepin.  It’s a cute town on Lake Pepin.  Lake Pepin is really a wide area of the Mississippi River.  We drove north to take the bridge across to Redwing, Minnesota.  We passed Maiden Rock – a stunningly beautiful rock overlooking the Mississippi and the town that shares its name is attractive and quant.  The name Maiden Rocks if rom the legend of an Indian Maiden who leapt to her death from the rock rather than marry someone she didn’t love.

On the Banks of Plum Creek

We continued our voyage to the wonderful small, but hidden City of Sanborn Park in Minnesota. We camped there and loved it.  It is quiet with a nice playground and plenty of green space.  One can tell the town takes pride in this park as well they should.

Sod House on the Prairie

Our first stop the next morning was the Sod House on the Prairie.  We talked to the friendly owner who told us how her husband built the sod houses as a passion project.  My kids were enthralled with the barn cats and kittens.  My son Kile said that was the best part!  The first stop on the site is a video laying from the history channel visit to the area where the owner explained how he built the sod houses.  The sod houses included one large house, a dugout, outhouse, and shed as well as the cutter used to make them.  There was a log cabin that was also the size of the Ingalls family dugout on Plum Creek in Walnut Grove.  It was very small!!  It made the Little House in the Big Woods look like a mansion.  I can see why Pa was ready to take out a loan on the wheat crop to build a frame house after one winter living in the sod house.

Deluxe Sod House

 Inside the deluxe sod house

Frame House the Size of the Ingalls Dugout

The buildings were furnished and of much interest to the kids.  They were “much nicer than I imagined,” said my husband Ben.  There was a restored prairie around the site with paths to walk.  The sod houses are starting to return to nature since the owner’s illness.  It’s easy to see why it’s hard to find any original sod houses.  Overall Sod House on the Prairie helped me to understand what it was really like for the Ingalls to live in a sod house.

 Restored Prairie

Original Dugout Site

The original dugout site for On the Banks of Plum Creek is a family farm.  It is $5 for carload.  There were two picnic tables on the site where we enjoyed a picnic lunch.  The DNR has restored prairies around the site.  We walked on a couple of loops.  Penelope and I are currently reading on the Banks of Plum Creek and it was amazing to see some of the same vegetation on the prairie that we had just read about.

 Restored Prairie around the site

 The Big Rock Laura and Mary Played On

The big rock from the book that Laura and Mary played on is now in the creek.  The dugout itself is not there, but there is an outline topped off.  It was smaller than I imagined and also farther away from Plum Creek than the illustration in the book by Garth Williams.

Original Dugout Site

The bridge was one plank over the Creek in the book, I’ll admit, I was disappointed by the new bridge – although I’m sure it was much safer!  The kids LOVED wading in the creek and would have stayed there all day.  “It was good,” said ten year old Kile.  “I liked going on a Creek adventure,” said Daniel.  It was awesome to walk where the Ingalls family had walked.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum

The kids really enjoyed all of the hands on activities for kids at this small museum.  It also had a great gift shop where I bought a few items.  I was overwhelmed by the selection and wanted so much more than I purchased, but there are budgets!  The museum had a lot of TV show memorabilia, but not many book artifacts.  There were mostly pictures of the historical artifacts of replicas of what is in the museum in Laura’s final home in Mansfield, Missouri. 

 Kile liked pretending to be a teacher in the museum

I’ll admit that my favorite part of the museum was a weird sock and some panty hose that were displayed that Alison Arngrim, the actress who played Nellie Oleson on the show, had worn on two different visits to the museum.   I thought this was very strange.  Did the museum scavenge them out of her dressing room?  Did she leave them on purpose?  Who wants to see a dirty sock warn by the actress who played Nellie Oleson?  I’m a Little House super fan, but this was taking it too far!

 Am I the only one weirded out by the socks?

We drove around town after the museum and I was sad that no original buildings from the book remain.  They did have historical markers on the sites where they stood.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant

A Pageant is held in Walnut Grove on three weekends in July.  This was easily our favorite part of the entire trip.  The pageant was an outdoor play of the events of On the Banks of Plum Creek with some items updated for historical accuracy.  The sets were awesome.  We especially liked when they built a church in the play and physically built it before us.  Other sets, such as houses, came out and unfolded to be used in the story line.  The storyline was great and the actors were also wonderful.  It is the same pageant storyline every year and you can tell it has been polished over time. 

We all loved the Pageant and it was much better than we expect.  “It was a high quality production,” said my husband Ben.  Our only complaint is that we should have brought pants or blankets!

That concluded our trip to Walnut Grove.  We left the next morning to drive to Minneapolis for the baptism.  We were all happy we made the trip and we are hoping to go to South Dakota next year to see our next Little House site, De Smet as well as the badlands and Mount Rushmore.  This trip really helped me to see what the world was like in Little House in the Big Woods and On the Banks of Plum Creek and reality did not always match what I had imagined!

Have you been to any literary sites?  How did they match up with your imagination?