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Date Posted: 22:40:51 04/09/02 Tue
Author: Anne
Subject: Old Town In The Green Groves
Has anyone got their hands on the new book Old Town In The Green Groves? I haven't yet, but have ordered it.
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Re: Old Town In The Green Groves -- nancy, 00:03:26 04/10/02 Wed
Yes, I've read it. It sucks canal water. There is SO much wrong with the book -- stuff that makes it obvious that Cynthia Rylant didn't even have a passing acquaintance with the LH books. We discussed it on another LIW group and were pretty brutal (g).
The worst thing, imho, is that on the back of the dust jacket, this book is now listed as an honest to goodness LITTLE HOUSE book!!! They have it pictured right there between BPC and SSL, with "Read all the Little House Books" written above. No, no, no, this is just wrong!
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Re: Old Town In The Green Groves -- Anne, 00:35:34 04/10/02 Wed
Oh No! You have confirmed my darkest fears Nancy! What a shame that a better job couldn't have been done with the book. Did Cynthia Rylant stick to the facts at all or was she pretty far off the mark in most parts?
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facts? -- nancy, 00:55:28 04/10/02 Wed
Feel free to skip this if you're going to read the book.
There were things she got right, but the ones she got wrong just stuck out like sore thumbs. Pa was a coffee drinker; Ma put the china shepherdess out in a temporary home; Jack wasn't a bulldog; the family had ham to eat (when in LToP it said that the first time they had pork other than salt pork since BW was at the New England Supper); the Steadmans were the "Steadams" (and there was no baby in the family); the rented house in WG was behind the school; no mention of church in Burr Oak... etc. etc. Carrie's age is even wrong in the book!
Rylant obviously used Pioneer Girl for the basic stories. Only the way she told them didn't make you want to read them again. They just didn't "sing" like Laura's.
If I had picked up this book and it was about Pete, Susan, and their daughter Molly, I wouldn't have bought it. Period. The only reason I did buy it was because of the LH connection. I wish I had at least waited until it was available in paperback. It was a total waste of $16.
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I forgot -- nancy, 01:01:43 04/10/02 Wed
This book is much shorter than either BPC or SSL. It's only 164 pages (BPC is 339, and in a smaller font!) and it feels like it is written at a much easier reading level than any LH book, to me.
The illustrations look like Holly Hobbie people, and the illustrator obviously didn't think that anyone owned a comb.
Enough from me, before I say what I really think. :-)
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Nancy... -- Anne, 04:07:18 04/10/02 Wed
Maybe I should cancel my order and just wait for my library to get it?
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Anne -- nancy, 10:06:08 04/10/02 Wed
Or you could go ahead and get it and if you don't like it, donate it to your library so others won't have to buy it?
Or lend it around to your friends to save them the money. That's what I'm doing.
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Re: Old Town In The Green Groves -- Anonymous, 13:59:34 04/10/02 Wed
Sorry to intrude, and excuse my ignorance, but what is BPC and SSL?
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Re: Old Town In The Green Groves -- Laura, 16:28:31 04/10/02 Wed
BPC= On the Banks of Plum Creek
SSL= By the Shores of Silver Lake
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Re: Old Town In The Green Groves -- Shel, 13:19:14 04/11/02 Thu
Well, I was all excited to get this book but now I don't know. I think I will wait and see if my library gets it and borrow it first. I have a gift certificate from Barnes and Nobles I was going to use but I think I'll save it.
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Re: Old Town In The Green Groves -- Michelle, 09:43:18 04/12/02 Fri
I have just finished reading the book. I was really disappointed. It was very much like watching one of the Beyond the Prairie movies. Cynthia Rylant got the basic story right, but there were so many inaccurated details. She said she researched dozens of sources. If she did, I don't know how she could have gotten so much wrong. I felt like she didn't even read the books. She did a poor job of capturing Pa and Laura's true spirit. It was more like she captured the TV character portrayls. At one point Pa swears "Blasted rain!" and Laura speaks out of turn in front of strangers. That would never happen!
Some of the things that Nancy said she got wrong, she actually got right. Jack was described as a brindle bulldog, although the picture of him doesn't look like one. The rented house they lived in was behind the church in the book. Carrie's age was right for the most part, although they were off by a few months. They said she was six in the spring when they were walking to school. She actually wasn't 6 until later that summer when they were at Uncle Peter's farm.
Besides the things that Nancy mentioned I take issue with the following:
The house acosss the street from Kimballs' grocery was owned by Peter Pfeiffer, town clerk and justice of the peace. It was his widowed daughter and grandaughters who visited with Ma and the girls. Their names were May and Isadore, not Victoria and Isabel.
Mrs. Starr's daughters names were Ida and Fannie, not Fay.
School lasted until the spring, when it actually lasted until July. Laura stayed home from school to help Ma with newborn Grace and learn her multiplication tables.
Lansford and Edith Ingalls ages were incorrect. Her book says that Edith was 6 and Lansford a baby like Freddie. Actually at that time, Lansford was 6 and Edith was 4. Although Laura had this wrong in Pioneer Girl also. Still, it's not that hard to do the research.
Pa says the fire in the saloon was started by a drunk knocking over a lantern. It actually was started by an oil lamp exploding when the proprietor was putting it out for the night.
There were 3 grasshopper invasions. The summer of 1874,1875,1876.
About 1/3 of the book takes place at Walnut Grove. I felt like Rylant couldn't make a book about only Burr Oak for lack of material, but she left out so many stories she could have put in. There was no mention of the following:
Amy, the hired girl in the hotel.
Mary and Laura having to babysit Tommy Steadman.
Nothing about Miss Sarah Donlan, the lower grade teacher at school.
NOTHING ABOUT MR. BISBY'S SINGING LESSONS!!!!!
Nothing about the bullet holes in the dining room door put there by Will Masters.
The story about Mr. Reid besting Mose and the other big boys was not in there either.
At the end of the book when they left Burr Oak in the middle of the night, I would have liked to have seen some mention made that they were headed back to Walunt Grove. I think it needed continuity to BSSS.
All in all I guess I'm glad the book was written. At least it will let the average reader reading the series for the first time a knowledge that the Ingalls did live in Burr Oak for a time. I can't stand how Harper Collins has promoted this as one of the real Little House Books. I'm just glad that Cynthis Rylant's last name doesn't start with WI so that it's not on the shelves next to Laura's books!
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Gormley bio, another book to have fun (NOT) with... -- nancy, 12:17:22 04/12/02 Fri
The historical teacher in Burr Oak was Mr. REED, not Reid. That's the latest one I caught. The Steadmans also had a daughter MARY, born around the same time as Freddy. Her birth record is on display in Walnut Grove. I often wonder if it was actually Mary Steadman that Laura and Mary babysat? After all, Laura got a lot of other names wrong in Pioneer Girl.
Are you writing a letter to HarperCollins, Michelle? (g)
I missed mention of Jack as a bulldog, thanks! I tried to read as few words as I could (g). There is also an illustration of lace and tie shoes -- did they have lace up shoes in 1876?
Another book that will make you angry is the LIW bio by Beatrice Gormley. Not only does she get Burr Oak wrong, she makes mistakes with every OTHER place Laura lived as well. Did you know that Pepin is on the Missouri River? :-) And this one is supposed to be a biography, not even a work of fiction like Vile Green Groves.
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