Childhood Literary Influences

Laura Ingalls Wilder’s LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE books are the earliest influence I can remember (other than Dr. Seuss) that made me want to become a writer. Well, Dr. Seuss didn’t make me want to be a writer so much as he made me want to learn to read. And I did learn to read as a preschooler, through the Dr. Seuss books. I didn’t go to Kindergarten (it didn’t exist in my little backwoods community and this was a few decades ago!), and, because I’m born in January, I was 6 and a half by the time I entered grade one. I would have been bored to tears if I hadn’t learned to read before grade one.

I most likely “taught myself” to read because my older sister, two grades ahead of me in school, would sit and read with my parents for her homework. I was a bit competitive, so was in there like a dirty shirt. If Big Sis was learning to read, then, by gum, I was learning to read, too!

So by the time I entered grade one, at six and a half, I was reading at a grade three level. Big Sis was in grade three. Makes sense.

My grade three teacher, Mrs. Brady, loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and read them to us every day. I fell in love with them, too. I must have read each book three times over the next couple of years. I identified with Laura because she had dark hair and had to wear pink all the time whereas her blonde sister got to wear blue. Yes, my mother was forever forcing me into pink. I was a tomboy (which is weird, because I have no athletic ability whatsoever…oh, yeah, I was competing with my brother, the only boy, for my father’s attention—that’s why I was a tomboy) (have I mentioned I’m a middle child?). As I said, I was a tomboy, and what tomboy wants to wear pink?

We also lived in a very tiny farming community that, to this day, doesn’t have a stop sign or a store of any kind. Laura came from a pioneering family, and as a child I felt pretty much that way about myself. Especially when a bear happened into the yard.

Did you know there’s a blog devoted to all things Laura Ingalls Wilder? Well, there is. It’s called Laura’s Little Houses. And it’s worth a visit.

My favorite Laura Ingalls Wilder book was ON THE BANKS OF PLUM CREEK. Do you have a favorite Laura book? Or a favorite author from your childhood? One who inspired your love of reading or led to dreams of becoming a writer?

My grade seven teacher loved Ray Bradbury and read Bradbury short stories to us nearly every day. Ray was fun. But Ray wasn’t Laura.

It’s Laura for me!

By Cindy

I'm irritated because my posts won't publish.

12 comments

  1. I LOVED Laura Ingalls. I keep trying to read it to my 4th graders–by 4th grade I’d read them all, several times–but they can’t get into it.

    My favorite is The Long Winter.

  2. I’m not sure which one was my favorite. I remember being about 5 or 6, though, and reading the first one, where they think Jack got lost in the river, and I was supposed to be going to the dining room for dinner but I sat at the little table in my bedroom sobbing my heart out, thinking I was ridiculous because I’d read the book before, and having to get to the point where he approached the fire before I stopped, so I’d “know” he was okay.

    Those books had a profound effect on me as a reader, but I’m not sure they alone can get credit for making me a writer. I think I was born that way. 🙂

  3. Natalie, I admit I was born that way as well. But I didn’t realize you could make a living as a writer (ie. write a series of novels) until reading the LIW books at age 8. So that’s when I knew – this is what want to do. What hit it home more for me was that I grew up in a farming community where the vast majority of people were related to me and shared my last name, so I really identified with Laura.

  4. MJ, good for you for trying to read the series to them. The Long Winter had some memorable scenes, and I remember them coming to life in the TV series, which I, of course, ate up.

  5. They are wonderful books! I enjoyed reading about pioneer families in general. I’ve always loved historical fiction and continue to read it to this day. We learn so much about the world past and present through reading.

  6. The Walter Farley “Black Stallion” books were my favorite books as a child. Growing up in the SE Bronx I was entranced by the wild horses in these books, one of whom volunteered to follow me to school every day to protect me from the gangs. What a great way to learn how powerful books can be!

  7. I must be the only American woman of a certain age who did not grow up reading the Little House on the Prairie series. I read a series of books centered on collies written by Albert Payson Terhune, and those are the books that inspired me to be a writer. I recently found out a friend here in my neck of the woods has the whole series. Do you see me turning green? I’m hoping she would like to part with one or two.

  8. Jacqueline, I think I read more historical fiction as a child than I do now. Now, it’s more about contemporaries for me. But as a child I loved reading about Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I. Then grade ten Canadian history came along and destroyed my enjoyment of history. I love Canadian literature, but, alas, found Canadian history repetitive, because it was always, always, always about the Fur Trade.

  9. Alice, I’m not familiar with Half Magic. I did super enjoy a book about some volcanoe and an island. I can’t remember what it was called. Oh, and A Wrinkle in Time. And The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

    Joyce, I can’t remember if I read the Black Stallion books! I must have, because I recall several friend being enthralled with them. But if I read them, they didn’t stick in my memory banks. Isn’t it funny how some books will capture our imaginations and others we just “read”?

  10. Maryann, I hope you can acquire a couple of those books! And, yes, we women “of a certain age” about fits it, doesn’t it? The Little House books were very popular when I was a child, but both my kids are boys. One was super into a series of books based on classics that all featured this same dog on the cover. And Goosebumps. He was all about Goosebumps.

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