Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography

My husband and I are reading this book together and really enjoying it. It is very thorough. I can tell the writers put a ton of work into this. Very well done!

This is an excellent companion to the "Little House" series. My second grader had to read the first book for class, I had never read them myself and we ended up ordering the entire series. I would recommend a fresh reading of the "Little House" books prior to reading this book to ensure that the material is fresh.This annotated version is a combination of the Pioneer Girl which was meant to be a true account of events that go into the fictionized children series, and much commentary of the content as well as historical accuracy of events. I would say an exhaustive commentary. The annotated comments show the close collaboration between Laura Wilder and her daughter Rose Wilder in the compilation of this book and the Little House books. Much of the "contention" that you see in the annotation portion of the book between the two, I believe is really just looking inside the process of the development of the novels. The struggle between maintaining the balance of historical accuracy and making the books interesting enough to get published and sell; and for the children's books, acceptable for young readers. The comments gave me the impression that Laura and Rose worked well together, and that the collaboration helped both become better writers.I believe the publisher and/or author did an excellent job of separating out the annotation and the Pioneer Girl text. Keep in mind you can have 4 or 5 pages of commentary between pages of text. Though, you can ignore the commentary and read the novel straight through as well.One word of caution, if you would prefer to read only the Pioneer Girl, you could probably find a version cheaper and without the commentary. This books as I stated above gives exhaustive commentary, which personally I could not get enough of. Both the commentary and the novel give an excellent look into the times and experiences of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family in the years that compile the content of the novel as well as the times in which these books were written."God hates a coward." I loved to find out that Laura insists the exploits of Cap Garland and Almanzo were true.

This book is absolutely gorgeous, and I was SHOCKED by the size. I had no idea it was going to be the size of a school text book. The paper quality is lovely, and the pictures are wonderful. The cover is beautiful, and not only does it look so much like teenage Laura, it also fits really well with the Garth Williams illustrations we are all familiar with.The information inside is absolute gold. I had no idea that there was anything else I could learn about Laura, as I have read every book written by, for, or about her, but there is so much. It truly gives new insight into what was true and what was fiction in the series. Reading Laura's words is like reading a letter written by my own grandmother, the style of writing is so honest and open. The side-bar information is fascinating. The depth of research that went into every name Laura mentions, every location, and every incident is mind-boggling.I'm even more stunned now at Laura's memory. Although she makes a few mistakes about some names, for the most part, she remembers names of neighbors and details about events that are verified by Hill and the other researchers. It's truly impressive that Laura was able to remember so much detail about her childhood.My absolute favorite little bit from Laura's writing was the story about the mitten she knitted for Baby Carrie. It is one of the sweetest stories I've read, and feels so absolutely true and with emotions that I can even remember feeling as a young child.I still have a bit of the book to go. I'm a speed reader, and it still takes me an hour to get through ten pages. There is just SO MUCH packed onto each and every page that it takes awhile to digest. I've literally been waiting twenty years to read Pioneer Girl, ever since I first found out it existed, when I was about ten years old. Finally reading it is a little stunning.

É uma edição comentada, diferente de uma autobiografia escrita por ela!

Loved reading the original story that Laura wrote that the Little House series developed from. I also was impressed with the amount of background information included, as well as photos, maps, and original notes. The size of the book was surprisingly bigger than I anticipated! Great book to add to your personal library if you are a fan of Laura Ingalls!

Tres beau texte à l’origine de la série des livres La petite maison dans la prairie

In diesem Buch ist die autobiographische Erzählung „A Pioneer Girl“ von Laura Ingalls Wilder mit fleißig und umfassend zusammengetragenen Anmerkungen herausgegeben.Diese Erzählung nutzte die Autorin als Basis für eine Serie von in den USA sehr populären Kinderbüchern, und diese wiederum Anlass für eine Fernsehserie die in Deutschland als „Unsere kleine Farm“ ausgestrahlt wurde.Die Betonung liegt dabei auf den Anmerkungen, die den überwiegenden Teil ausmachen und wissenschaftlichen Kriterien genügen. Die Anmerkungen sind für den naiven Lesegenuss ein wenig zu detailreich –ich werde zum Beispiel nicht vergessen, dass das Manuskript mit Bleistift Nummer 2 geschrieben wurde –wollte ich das wirklich wissen?Meine mäßigen Englischkenntnisse reichten aus, den Inhalt zu verstehen. Über einige Begriffe habe ich hinweg gelesen oder sie aus dem Zusammenhang erraten, für andere habe ich das Internet bemüht. Ich weiß nun, was die „gopher“ auf dem Farmland anrichteten, dass Frau Ingalls sich als Kind als „chum“ und „tomboy“ sah, kenne die damalige ausschließliche Bedeutung von „team“ und „teamster“ und dass die Farmfrauen nach alter Tradition am Mittwoch das „churn“ herausholen und dass ein „colt“ auch ein Hengstfohlen ist.Zum Schluss kommend, möchte ich erwähnen, dass das Buch typografisch und in der Ausstattung ein Spitzenprodukt ist: Großes Seitenformat, die Anmerkungen befinden sich stets in der Nähe des Textes, meist in einer extra Spalte oder auf den anschließenden Seiten.Das Buch ist reich bebildert und mit ausgiebigem Vorwort, Acknowledgement. Anhang, Index etc. versehen. Die Anmerkungen sind gründlich recherchiert und geben interessante Hintergrundinformationen, z.B. wie kamen die Siedler zu ihren Claims?Andere Daten, z.B. die biographischen Daten der vielen Nebenpersonen, zeigen nur, dass es diese Personen wirklich gab. Oft wird auf Irrtümer in den Zeitabläufen hingewiesen – kein Wunder, wenn sich eine über 60-jährige an die Kindheit erinnert. (Gelegentlich soll sie geäußert haben „Keiner wird später die Daten meiner Erzählung überprüfen“ – ein Irrtum.) Diese sicher ermüdende Häufung von Fakten ist jedoch eine unvermeintliche Konsequenz einer umfassenden kritischen Ausgabe.Insgesamt ist das Buch sehr empfehlenswert, insbesondere für die, die sich auch für Hintergrundinformationen interessieren.

Awesome- so interesting and well put together. A Rich Reading Experience