Archive for the 'Little House' Category
June 27, 2008 @ 3:21 pm | Filed under: Little House
Did you know there’s an I Remember Laura blog-a-thon going on this month? Every Monday in June, Miss Sandy of Quill Cottage is hosting a little blog carnival about Laura Ingalls Wilder. This week, the theme is “Musical Memories and Beautiful Books,” and the always amiable Karla of Ramblin’ Roads to Everywhere asked if she could interview me about my own Little House books. She asked great questions, and her post is up at Ramblin’ Roads today. Thanks again, Karla! It was a pleasure.
Charlotte books, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Martha books
February 4, 2008 @ 8:37 am | Filed under: Little House
Well, I’m pretty blown away this morning by the photos in this post at Pondered in My Heart—and by the tremendous compliments paid me by her family’s enthusiasm for my Martha and Charlotte books. There is nothing more exciting to an author than seeing how her books have come to life for someone. Kimberlee’s daughter Mary Rose is apparently a big fan, and her thoughtful big sister made her some Charlotte-inspired goodies for Christmas: a handmade copybook, Blue Back Speller, and gorgeously illustrated alphabet book. Truly lovely work, Lydia. I am very impressed.
And wait until you see the handcarved toys and spindles Kimberlee’s sons made for their sisters. What a family!
By the way, the original "Blue Back Speller"—Noah Webster’s American Spelling Book
But I have to say, I think I prefer Lydia’s version!
December 2, 2007 @ 9:47 am | Filed under: Little House
Little House fans won’t want to miss Sarah Miller’s interview with Pamela Smith Hill, author of the new biography, Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer’s Life
Sarah Miller is the author of another book high on my TBR list: Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller
November 30, 2007 @ 12:14 am | Filed under: Little House
I was reading a lovely post about St. Andrew by Elena at My Domestic Church and, to my surprise, stumbled upon my own name. Elena mentions that St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, and adds:
Our family has been reading Melissa Wiley’s Martha
Books for almost nine months now and these stories are set in Scotland.
Young Martha, the laird’s daughter, is always helping in the kitchen
with baking bannocks, or eating bannocks, so the kids and I have
decided to actually make bannocks tomorrow in celebration of the feast
day. I’ll post pictures and let you know if they turn out okay!
I look forward to seeing those pictures!
I posted a recipe for bannocks here a long while back.
And here’s a Martha/Scotland-related resource & activities page.
September 14, 2007 @ 7:34 am | Filed under: Little House, Poetry
One of the books I read during my research for the Martha Books was Dorothy Wordsworth’s Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland in A.D. 1803. The time period was just about right; Little House in the Highlands is set in 1795, and change came slowly to those remote glens.
Dorothy traveled with her brother, William, and their friend, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. (Ooh! Now there’s an idea for a novel!) In her journal she wrote,
"It was harvest-time, and the fields were quietly (might I be allowed to say pensively?) enlivened by small companies of reapers. It is not uncommon in the more lonely parts of the Highlands to see a single person so employed. The following poem was suggested to Wm. by a beautiful sentence in Thomas Wilkinson’s Tour in Scotland."
And then she copied out William’s poem (written two years later), "The Solitary Reaper."
A note in my Wm. Wordsworth collection tells me that the line from Thomas Wilkinson is this:
"Passed a female who was reaping alone; she sung in Erse, as she bended over her sickle; the sweetest human voice I ever heard: her strains were tenderly melancholy, and felt delicious, long after they were heard no more."
I love to know the story behind a poem, a novel, a painting. Here is William’s poem, all the lovelier to me for knowing what sparked it in his mind.
The Solitary Reaper
by William Wordsworth
Behold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.
No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
A voice so shrilling ne’er was heard
In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.
Will no one tell me what she sings?—
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago:
Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again?
Whate’er the theme, the Maiden sang
As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work,
And o’er the sickle bending;—
I listen’d, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.
This week’s Poetry Friday round-up can be found at Hip Writer Mama.
What’s Poetry Friday? Susan Thomsen explains at PoetryFoundation.org.
July 2, 2007 @ 7:32 am | Filed under: Little House
UPDATED! A reader reports that the Loftus Store shipped her one of the old (unabridged) books, and one of the new (abridged). If you order from these sources and you want the unabridged editions, be sure to request the versions with the illustrated (painted) covers. The photo covers are the abridged editions.
Alicia, aka Love2Learn Mom, has just returned from a trip to South Dakota. One stop on her route was De Smet, the town Charles and Caroline Ingalls settled in during By the Shores of Silver Lake. Alicia writes that she found
two gift shops that still had quite a few copies of the [unabridged] Little House
prequels available for sale (and were willing to ship telephone orders).Here’s the info in case you’d like to pass it along…
The Loftus Store
www.loftusstore.com
1-866-335-3271Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society
1-800-880-3383
This one had at least five copies of most of the books
They have Caroline books as well as my Martha and Charlotte novels.
June 16, 2007 @ 9:53 am | Filed under: Little House
Karen E. noticed that a1books.com has a selection of the original, unabridged editions of some of my Martha and Charlotte books for reasonable prices, if you’re still looking.
The abridged versions are in the bookstores now, and please note that although the covers say "by Melissa Wiley," I declined to have any involvement in the cutting down. I have not read them. I did notice that one of my fairy tales in Highlands was pulled out and reprinted in the back of the book, under a heading about how "Martha loved when her mother told her stories." Eek.
June 5, 2007 @ 2:10 pm | Filed under: Little House
The wonderful Keller family runs a used-and-new online bookstore, and they kindly hosted my booksigning at the Virginia Home Education Association conference a few years back. They had me sign some extra books for their inventory, and they still have a few of these in stock if you’re looking for the unabridged editions of my Little House novels.
March 8, 2007 @ 1:39 pm | Filed under: Little House
The always delightful Nancy of FUN Books—one of my favorite homeschooling resource suppliers—has let me know that she has copies of all my unabridged Martha and Charlotte books in stock, except for The Road from Roxbury. That’s FUN as in Family Unschooling Network, and if you haven’t explored their collection of fun educational materials, you are in for a treat.
("What do you mean, unabridged?" Explanation here and here.)
February 11, 2007 @ 8:15 am | Filed under: Little House
Is it true they are getting rid of the Garth Williams illustrations in Laura’s books?
Only in the new paperback editions with the photographic covers. The Garth Williams art will still appear in the hardcover editions of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books, as well as the colorized paperback editions.
Are Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books being abridged?
No, only the Martha, Charlotte, Caroline, and Rose books are being abridged.
I want to buy the original, unabridged editions of your Martha and Charlotte books. How can I be sure that’s what I’m getting?
The new, abridged editions will have photo covers. The unabridged editions have the painted covers that appear in my sidebar.
Can you give me a list of all your books in order?
The Martha books are:
Little House in the Highlands
The Far Side of the Loch
Down to the Bonny Glen
Beyond the Heather Hills
The Charlotte books are:
Little House by Boston Bay
On Tide Mill Lane
The Road from Roxbury
Across the Puddingstone Dam
Oh no! Is The Road from Roxbury (unabridged) already out of print? I can’t find it at Amazon.
Try smaller booksellers such as those affiliated with the various Little House museum sites around the country.
And thank you so very much for your interest!
Related posts:
Little House news
More about my decision
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