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A Lovely Day at Three South Dakota Prairie Historical Sites

The re-created "Little House" at the Ingalls Homestead at DeSmet, S.D.. Photo by Deb Watley.
The re-created “Little House” at the Ingalls Homestead at DeSmet, S.D.. Photo by Deb Watley.

Recently my husband and I took a day trip to visit a several historical sites in South Dakota. We went to Prairie Village west of Madison and two Laura Ingalls Wilder sites at DeSmet.

Prairie Village is comprised of quite a few buildings from the area, ranging from a log cabin built in the 1870s to a school house, an opera house, and a telephone switchboard office. The village also features some railroading history.

The village is located on the shores of Lake Herman and has a lovely view.

A beautiful church at the Prairie Village outside of Madison, S.D. The church at the Ingalls Homestead looks similar. Photo by Deb Watley.
A beautiful church at the Prairie Village outside of Madison, S.D. The church at the Ingalls Homestead looks similar. Photo by Deb Watley.

We were provided with a map and printed information about most of the buildings, and we could wander at our own pace. It was our first visit to the village. Another time I’d like to see the historic steam carousel, but it was closed the day we visited.

We also visited the Ingalls Homestead site at DeSmet. This was also a first-time visit for us. It’s located on the 160 acre plot south of DeSmet that Charles Ingalls, father of author Laura Ingalls Wilder, claimed in 1880.

The site had an example of a dugout, like what the Ingalls lived in along the bank of Plum Creek in Minnesota, as well as an example of a shanty, similar to what the family would’ve lived in their first summer on their homestead.

I think the shanty looked more pleasant, but it would’ve been very hard to heat in the winter.

Inside the dugout at the Ingalls Homestead. Laura lived in something similar as a young girl when her family moved to Minnesota. It would've been warm in the winter, but I think critters and snakes would've been frequent visitors. Photo by Deb Watley.
Inside the dugout at the Ingalls Homestead. Laura lived in something similar as a young girl when her family moved to Minnesota. It would’ve been warm in the winter, but I think critters and snakes would’ve been frequent visitors. Photo by Deb Watley.

Although the site doesn’t have the house the Ingalls lived in, it has a re-created house built to the correct measurements at it’s final addition. The original house would’ve been very tiny for a family of six!

A school building and a church, that came from nearby, are preserved on the homestead even though those buildings don’t have direct connections to the Ingalls or Wilders.

There were docents at the school and the “Little House,” and at the church our wagon driver gave us some information and sung to us from the old song, “The Little Brown Church in the Vale.”

The church and the school buildings are on opposite ends of the land. You may walk if you want, or you may ride in a horse-drawn wagon. The wagon seats probably about 10-12 people, so it’s probably bigger than the wagon the Ingalls would’ve used.

Visitors are allowed to “drive” the tourist wagon — with help from the expert driver. Of course I volunteered, and driving the team of horses was one of the highlights of my day.

A wagon at the Ingalls Homestead. That seat looks mighty uncomfortable! Photo by Deb Watley
A wagon at the Ingalls Homestead. That seat looks mighty uncomfortable! Photo by Deb Watley

We also went to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Homes site in DeSmet. It is comprised of the Surveyors’ House, a couple school houses, and Charles and Caroline’s town house they built after Laura was grown and married.

We had been to this site previously, so instead of visiting the buildings again we went to the “Beyond the Prairie” exhibit at the museum/gift shop. The exhibit focused on the separate and collaborative writings of both Laura and her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane.

It’s well documented how Laura and Rose worked together to write the Little House on the Prairie novel series, but it was very interesting to see their handwritten and typewritten letters to each other discussing the stories and the writing process.

It was also very interesting to learn more about Rose. She was famous before her mother was. Rose was a world traveller, a writer of fiction and non-fiction, and an expert in needlework.

I recommend visiting any of these sites to see what pioneering life was like. Understanding some of the challenges pioneers faced makes me appreciate things like electricity, indoor plumbing, furnaces, modern medicine, gas-powered cars, asphalt roads, and the internet — though it might be fun, once in a while, to take a horse and buggy to town.

Photo by Bruce Watley.

Have you been to any of these sites? What’s your favorite part? What part of pioneering would’ve been toughest on you?

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Join Me for Fun at the Red River Valley Kids Read

Summer Ruins is the featured book for the second annual Red River Valley Kids Read project for libraries in the Fargo, N.D.-Moorhead, Minn., area during March 2023!

I’ll speak with young readers at Leach Library in Wahpeton, N.D., at 2 p.m. Friday, March 10, and at Bonanzaville in West Fargo, N.D., at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 11.

The librarians have planned a full slate of fun activities related to Summer Ruins, history, and archeology. Please check out the wonderful brochure they’ve created (below).

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Red River Valley Kids Read 2023: Summer Ruins

Summer Ruins is the featured book for the second annual Red River Valley Kids Read project for libraries in the Fargo, N.D.-Moorhead, Minn., area during March 2023!

I’ll be speaking with young readers at Leach Library in Wahpeton, N.D., at 2 p.m. Friday, March 10, and at Bonanzaville in West Fargo, N.D., at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 11.

Participating libraries are also planning fun activities related to the book, history, and archeology.

Fargo Public Library

Grand Forks Public Library

Leach Library

Moorhead Public Library March 4 & March 18

West Fargo Public Library

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New Historical Fiction Connects Readers to Children of the Past

If you’re looking for a newly published historical fiction book for your readers, ages 8-12, I recommend A Kidnapping in Kentucky 1776 by Elizabeth Raum (2022, Chicken Scratch Books).

Raum’s novel brings to life a three-day historical event through the perspectives of Jemima Boone and John Gass when Jemima and two of her friends were captured by Indians near the fledgling settlement of Fort Boonesborough.

The adventure alternates between Jemima, the thirteen-year-old daughter of Daniel Boone, and John, the twelve-year-old son of one of the other settlers.

Although historical children often had to take on responsibilities at younger ages than modern children do, Raum does a good job connecting Jemima’s and John’s fears and desires to ones current young readers also have.

Both characters deal with the consequences of their actions and face their fears.

Jemima realizes her selfishness has put her friends in danger and takes initiative to save them.

John wants to be recognized as a grown up (what twelve year old doesn’t, even now?), but learns he must prove his maturity.

Raum includes a glossary, a long list of sources, a timeline, and question-and-answer pages in her back matter.

She explains where the story and the facts differ, describes the tensions between the settlers and the Shawnee and Cherokee tribes over the land in Kentucky, and places the Kentucky situation in its context of the Revolutionary War between the Thirteen Colonies and Britain.

All in all, she tells a fascinating story, portrays the conflict between the Indians and settlers with balance and understanding, creates age-appropriate characters for their time, as well as writing an age-appropriate novel for modern children.

Although Raum has authored 150 published children’s books, this is her first novel with Chicken Scratch Books, a newer publishing company with the mission is to bring quality, agenda-free stories to children, ages 8-12.

Chicken Scratch Books also offers an online course (not just a guide, but a multi-week course) for young readers and an analysis course for writers with each of its books.

I’m impressed by Chicken Scratch Books and plan to read more the publishing company’s books. Please check out the company’s website.

For more information about Raum and her other books, visit ElizabethRaumBooks.com.

Had you previously heard of Jemima or John? Have you read other books by Elizabeth Raum or Chicken Scratch Books? Which ones?

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Elizabeth Goudge Brings Childlike Wonder to Christmas and Epiphany

One of my favorite books I read during the past Christmas and current Epiphany season was I Saw Three Ships By Elizabeth Goudge (published in 1969).

This short novel is set in a seaside English village during the Napoleonic Era and features a young girl experiencing her first Christmas after the death of her parents. She faces the holiday with her childlike wonder and faith intact and affects the adults around her in a delightful way.

This is considered a children’s novel, but I found it to be a great encouragement for adults to keep believing Jesus with a childlike faith.

Check out this enlightening essay by Deborah Gaudin about I See Three Ships at The Elizabeth Goudge Society Website. However, she mentions a different illustrator for the British edition than the American edition I have pictured above has.

Have you read this story in either British or American edition? What did you think of it?

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History & Imagination in Betsy-Tacy Books Make Delightful Reading Experience

Photo by Deb Watley

It surprises me when I read a classic book or series that I find I love but that I somehow missed as a kid. I feel like I missed out of a precious part of childhood.

Yet, it’s also so fun to “discover” a wonderful children’s story as an adult.

My two latest newly-discovered classic children’s series are by Maud Hart Lovelace: The Betsy-Tacy Books and Deep Valley Books.

Both of these series are set in the fictional town of Deep Valley, Minn., in the late 1800s/early 1900s and are based on Lovelace’s childhood in Mankato, Minn.

The Betsy-Tacy Books feature Betsy–the fictionalized Lovelace–and her lifelong friend, Tacy–Lovelace’s friend, Francis “Bick” Kenney.

The two girls live across the road from each other and become friends at Betsy’s fifth birthday party.

Each of the ten books in the Betsy-Tacy Books covers about a year in Betsy’s life, beginning when Betsy turns five and follows her through high school graduation and young adulthood.

The Deep Valley Books each feature a different protagonist, but they’re set during Betsy’s life, and Betsy shows up in all three stories.

I enjoyed spending more time in Deep Valley with the familiar characters and to see Betsy through other characters’ viewpoints.

I liked Betsy a lot. She has a huge imagination, wants to be a writer, often leads her friends in fun adventures, but she also has a tender heart. Her friends, Tacy and Tib, have very different personalities, making the trio a great team.

But I think I identified more with Emily (in the last Deep Valley book) because of her more introspective and introverted personality.

Although Lovelace’s stories are gentle and heart-warming, she does reference hard things the characters experience. For instance, a nearby settlement of Lebanese immigrants deals with poverty and discrimination, and other characters fight illness, lose family members, and make sacrifices to take care of family.

Yet a theme that runs through the novels is of characters making the best of their situations and overcoming their hardships or disappointments.

All thirteen books are odes to imagination, family, and friendships. They inspire me to be a better friend. They also inspire me to take joy in the simple pleasures of life.

Plus I learned a lot about Minnesota in the early 1900s without even trying to “study history.” I became immersed in Betsy’s and the other characters’ lives and experienced with them their current events, school, family life, homemaking, transportation, food, and entertainments.

The titles in their series and their year of publication follows.

Betsy-Tacy Books

Betsy-Tacy (1940)

Betsy-Tacy and Tib (1941)

Betsy-Tacy Go Over the Big Hill (1942)

Betsy-Tacy Go Downtown (1943)

Heaven to Betsy (1945)

Betsy in Spite of Herself (1946)

Betsy Was a Junior (1947)

Betsy and Joe (1948)

Betsy and the Great World (1952)

Betsy’s Wedding (1955)

The Deep Valley Books

Carney’s House Party (1949)

Emily of Deep Valley (1950)

Winona’s Pony Cart (1953)

I suggest reading them in the chronological order of the stories:

Betsy-Tacy

Betsy-Tacy and Tib

Betsy-Tacy Go Over the Big Hill

Betsy-Tacy Go Downtown

Winona’s Pony Cart

Heaven to Betsy

Betsy in Spite of Herself

Betsy Was a Junior

Betsy and Joe

Carney’s House Party

Emily of Deep Valley

Betsy and the Great World

Betsy’s Wedding

The illustrators added to the delight of these books. Lois Lenski illustrated the first four books, and Vera Neville did the rest of the books.

If you’re a fan of the Little House Books or the Anne of Green Gables Series, give the Betsy-Tacy and Deep Valley Books a try.

In addition, check out the the Betsy-Tacy Society website for more info about Lovelace and her home in Mankato, Minn.

Have you read these books? If so, who do you relate to the most? Who inspires you? What’s your favorite scene or book? Have you visited the Betsy-Tacy homes? What classic children’s book that you missed as a child is on your to-read list?

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A FAMILY BAND by Laura Bower Van Nuys Inspires Resilience and Humor

One reason I love reading about the past is because there are so many inspirational people who faced and overcame challenges.

I recently read about the Calvin and Keziah Bower family that settled in Vermillion, Dakota Territory in 1870. Laura Bower Van Nuys, the youngest of the eight children, memorialized the family in her 1961 autobiography, The Family Band: The Missouri to the Black Hills, 1881-1900.

The young family made a life in Vermillion, but Van Nuys mentions that their family life was defined by before and after the great flood in the spring of 1881. This flood was preceded by The Hard Winter which we think of as The Long Winter because of the novel by another South Dakota Laura (Laura Ingalls Wilder). 

However, Van Nuys barely mentions the winter. For her family, it was the spring that was catastrophic. Because of all the extra snow melt and major ice jams on the Missouri and other rivers in the southeast part of the territory, the flooding destroyed much of Vermillion.

The Bower Family escaped with their lives and with some of their belongings, but they had to start life over. They recovered well, and then the oldest child, Rhoda Alice, married a Rapid City newspaper man and joined him out west. A few years later the rest of the family followed her and took a homestead in Custer County.

All of the children were musical, and the seven remaining at home formed a band. While they had their first performance or two in Vermillion, once they moved out west they pursued performance opportunities. They became a popular fixture at parades, Fourth of July celebrations, and other events all over the Black Hills.

They confronted bad weather, poverty, drought, hard work, illness, and death. I was impressed at the family members dedication to their music, their entrepreneurial spirit, their love for each other, their humor, and their resilience and flexibility in the face of hardships.

A fun thing about this family’s story is that Disney made a movie very, very loosely based on the Bowers. Of course the movie was a musical! It was titled The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band, released in 1969, and starred Walter Brennan, Buddy Ebsen, and Lesley Ann Warren, but also included a young Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn.

If you enjoyed reading the Little House books, give The Family Band a try. Although it was written as an adult biography, I think kids twelve and up would enjoy it, too.

Have you heard about the Bower Family? Do you have musicians in your family? How do you practice resilience in adversity?

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A Blessed Thanksgiving To You!

Photo by Deb Watley

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.”

Abraham Lincoln, 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation
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Fantasy or History? THE FALL OF GONDOLIN by J.R.R. Tolkien

I’m picky about the fantasy stories I like, but I love J.R.R. Tolkien’s work. He did such a effective job in his world-building that I suspend my disbelief. His Middle Earth stories feel like reading history.

As a young man Tolkien began creating a couple new languages, and then he began writing poems and stories for the elves who would speak these languages. Many years later he wrote a children’s story set in this fictional world, yet in a much later time period than his earlier stories were set.

That children’s story was The Hobbit. It became so popular that Tolkien’s publisher requested he write a sequel. 

Tolkien got to work. However, what he turned in was not The Hobbit sequel that was requested, but The Lord of the Rings. Many of us readers consider The LOTR to be a sequel to The Hobbit, but Tolkien considered it to be a continuation of his stories about the First Age.

His son, Christopher, later released these stories as The Silmarillion. (My edition of LOTR has some of this history included as back matter. Do all editions?)

Christopher has edited and released many of Tolkien’s works in recent years. The latest book, The Fall of Gondolin, was published in 2018.

All this to say, that when I read The LOTR, I was reading a story that had thousands and thousands of years of history to it. Some of the characters refer to past places and events and kingdoms that were still affecting the current narrative.

In addition, The LOTR, The Silmarillion, and The Fall of Gondolin seems like reading history because of the language. The vocabulary is expansive and challenging. The syntax often has a formal and old-fashioned feel.

It’s like I’m reading something written hundreds of years ago.

That’s totally different than reading some historical fiction written in the Twenty-first Century.

I don’t want to be too critical of modern historical fiction. Authors are told to avoid dialects, slang, obscure language in order to be accessible to the modern reader—especially child readers.

I understand and agree with that.

I find Shakespeare to be difficult to read, and his works are only about 500 years old. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, just over 600 years old, are totally inaccessible to me unless they have been translated into modern, or somewhat modern, English.

Yet a story written in Twenty-First Century English with only a sprinkling of historical vocabulary might sound so modern that it doesn’t feel historical at all.

I prefer historical stories to land in the middle of the language continuum—neither so obscure that I can’t understand it, nor so modern that it sounds like the dialogue is spoken by contemporary speakers. (There are many modern historical fiction that are good examples of this. Last month I wrote about Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm that feels like it’s truly set in the 1930s because of the vocabulary the characters used.)

I find that Tolkien’s writing, although challenging, is also delightful and gives an added sense of history to his stories. The stories feel real.

What makes a story feel historical to you? The vocabulary? Setting? Something else? Are you a Tolkien fan? Have you read The Fall of Gondolin? What did you think?

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2017 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction: FULL OF BEANS by Jennifer L. Holm

In my quest to read all of the books that have earned the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, this month I’ll be talking about the 2017 winner, Full of Beans, by Jennifer L. Holm.

In Full of Beans, a middle grade novel, ten-year-old Beans Curry lives in 1934 Key West, Florida, when Key West is a bankrupt town full of trash, but few jobs. Beans’ father leaves town in search of work, his mother takes in laundry, and Beans and his younger brother do whatever odd jobs they can find.

Life’s not all bad. Beans and his gang are the reigning marble champs, they enjoy Cuban food, and Beans goes to the movies to watch the new child actors whenever he gets a chance. However, when he decides to take a job for a shady townsperson, he reaps consequences he wasn’t expecting.

Instead of writing a traditional review of each of the Scott O’Dell Award winning books, I write about the historical facts and the writing craft lessons that I’ve learned. I find that even in books I don’t enjoy, there are often things I can learn.

History lesson—Depression-era Key West

During the Depression, Key West was so broke it had quit picking up trash and there were piles of trash around town causing a terrible odor. The main employers had left. Jobs were scarce. The federal government had decided to either close the town or make it a tourist mecca.

The New Deal employees came in to clean up the trash and paint the houses. Actually, the federal government paid for the supplies, but most of the labor was supplied by volunteer labor, including that of the kids of Key West.

Key West did become a tourist mecca, and it was largely because a marketing campaign.

Writing lesson—Flawed, yet likable protagonist

I think Beans is kind of the neighborhood tough guy. He’s street smart and he’ll take advantage of others to get ahead. Yet he loves his parents and his siblings. He’s a leader and loyal to his friends. He seems to be able to read adults and know if they’ve good or bad intentions. And he has dreams and a conscience.

Holm does a good job showing all these different aspects to Beans, making him a rounded, likable kid even though he makes some unlikable choices. In fact, in the first scene, Beans knows he’s being taken advantage of by an adult, but he goes along with it so he can take care of his hungry younger brother.

This made me enjoy spending time with Beans even if I didn’t like all his choices.

What kids books have you read set in Florida or during the Depression? What books have you read where the protagonists may not be the greatest role models, yet you still enjoyed spending time with them?

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Summer Stories Set in the Past Delight Me in the Now

This summer I read two wonderful books that are both considered British children’s classics. I missed them as a kid, so this was my first time to experience the wonder and delight of reading them.

The two books were The Railway Children by E. Nesbit, published in 1905, and Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome, published in 1930.

Both of these would be lumped into the historical fiction genre for today’s readers.

However, I’d place them into a sub-genre I refer to as Past Contemporary. By this I mean that although both of these stories are set in our (as readers) past, the authors set them in their own contemporary time periods.

Now they are historical stories, but when published they were contemporary stories.

For a discussion of the three sub-genres of historical fiction, see my previous article, Historical Fiction: My Definition.

It seems like I’m splitting hairs, but it is helpful for readers to know they might need to do a little legwork to understand all the cultural references the authors assumed their readers would get.

It’s also nice to know that the way the time period and culture is portrayed is through the characters’ and authors’ eyes, and not interpreted by later authors imposing their own thoughts and feelings onto the past.

Past contemporary stories give a truer glimpse into how people thought in the past.

Granted, both of the books I read seem to give an idealized account of childhood. I would accept that about Swallows and Amazons. The children have lovely adventure without being in any danger. True evil never touches them. The story is an ode to play and imagination and adults getting out of the way.

In The Railway Children, however, the children are dealing with the dire consequences from someone’s wrongdoing. Their mother hides the worst from them and helps them see their situation as an adventure.

I love how both books show loving families and healthy relationships. Their “innocent” lives are a huge part of why I enjoyed the books. Dark stories are generally not my cup of tea.

I also enjoyed the glimpse into rural England in early Twentieth Century. These stories truly did bring me to another time and place.

Whats your favorite children’s Past Contemporary book? What do you like about it?