Sign up
Search
Advanced search settings

Search only in certain items:

Search results
All (82)
Content
People
Apps
Books
Orbs
Movies
Music
Podcasts
Shows
Tabletop Games
Tech
TV
Video Games
YouTube Channels
Videos
40x40

Nicole Hadley (380 KP) rated Laura Ingalls Is Ruining My Life in Books

Jun 18, 2018  
LI
Laura Ingalls Is Ruining My Life
Shelley Tougas | 2017
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Laura Ingalls Is Ruining My Life by Shelley Tougas is a middle grade novel where we meet Charlotte Lake. Charlotte and her family are constantly moving to new cities for her mother’s passion of wanting to be a published author. Charlotte’s mom wants to write a book about Laura Ingalls, who was inspirational to her as a child. Charlotte is embarrassed by her mother’s obsession and frustrated with constantly having to start a new school and new life. She never feels like she fits in anywhere. She has a twin brother who has chosen to not talk since he feels his voice is not being heard in the moves, and a younger sister who is perfect. Charlotte struggles to make friends and find her niche among so many moves.

The family recently relocated to Walnut Grove, one of the places Laura Ingalls grew up. It houses a Laura Ingalls museum that hosts an essay contest each year. In a spark of brilliance, Charlotte decides to enter the contests and win the grand prize of $500. She knows this money will change her family’s life and maybe help her mother put down some roots. As the contest deadline nears, Charlotte becomes very ill with the flu and misses over a week of school, and time to create her essay. At the last moment, she furiously scribbles out the line, “Laura Ingalls is ruining my life,” and turns that in as her essay. Her clever teacher reads this and probes Charlotte to write more and dig deeper.

The family rents out the basement of a house owned by Mia and Miguel, who live upstairs with their granddaughter, Julia. Charlotte has moved so many times that she is reluctant to learn the names of her fellow classmates or draw any attention to herself. After she is out sick at the very beginning of school, she starts to notice that her brother has made a lot of friends in her absence. Charlotte, however, is still uncomfortable and even fails a reading test so that she has to spend her lunch time doing remedial work. She hopes to win an essay contest about Wilder because the $500 would be helpful to her family, but Julia wins instead. The two girls start to volunteer at the Wilder museum, and start to become friends. Charlotte’s mother is writing very little, and as the year progresses, starts to slip into a significant depression. Rose’s father remarries, and Rose is devastated that he no longer schedules any of their visits together. When there is vandalism at the museum, Charlotte is blamed, but the real perpetrator is not any of the people who are suspected.

I recommend this book for any fans of pioneer life, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and middle grade readers. I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley via Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group and Roaring Brook Press.
  
40x40

LilyLovesIndie (123 KP) rated The Long Winter (Little House, #6) in Books

Nov 5, 2018  
The Long Winter (Little House, #6)
The Long Winter (Little House, #6)
Laura Ingalls Wilder | 2007 | Fiction & Poetry
6
8.3 (7 Ratings)
Book Rating
Not one of my favourite in the Little House series, I must admit. We follow the family through a VERY long winter full of repetition and worry that eats away at the reader as much as it must have done poor Laura to live through it! (I must add, I read this during a period of bad snow ehere I had nothing to live off for several days but bagels, and as much as I love them, you don't half get fed up of blooming bread!)

One lovely highlight of this book is the loser interaction between the Wilder boys and the Ingalls family, even if, at this stage, it is just limited to Pa! It's nice to see the gradual steps towards what we already know occurs, and it's written well!

Not a bad read, drags a little and at times is like a plaster, you just need to whip it off and get on with it!