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Consider passing the time by listening in on the recent interview I did with Barry Eva of A Book and a Chat. Download the podcast here.

Here are some highlights and where to find them in the interview:

2:00 -- Magic tricks with Caroline the Great
3:25 -- Laura Ingalls Wilder's influence on my writing
5:40 -- Deserts: Saudi Arabia and New Mexico
9:20 -- Marmite, Vegemite, and Promite

11:00 -- Poetry in the classroom
17:40 -- Reflections on the word "poet"
19:00 -- How MAY B. came to be a verse novel
20:30 -- Emily Dickinson's poems and Gilligan's Island

23:35 -- Books I wrote before MAY B.
24:20 -- Roald Dahl's writing advice
26:20 -- Inspiration behind MAY B.
29:30 -- MAY B. and dyslexia
34:15 -- Mail order brides
36:05 -- MAY B. overview
37:03 -- sod houses

41:05 -- more on MAY as a verse novel
43:40 -- A little secret about my exposure to verse novels
44:47 -- My publication journey
49:00 -- The amazing Karen Cushman
49:35 -- The Classes of 2k11 and 2k12

53:50 -- Future projects

By Nicki Richesin, The Children’s Book Review
Published: December 5, 2011

Yona Zeldis McDonough

Yona Zeldis McDonough is the talented author of many books for readers of all ages: fiction and non-fiction for adults and award-winning children’s books. She has most recently written the highly anticipated second book in her Doll Shop series, The Cats in the Doll Shop. Although a prolific writer, Yona still makes time for school visits and readings. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Nicki Richesin: It’s a great pleasure to interview you. You have proved a prolific writer of both fiction and nonfiction for adults, in addition to your award-winning children’s books. My daughter adored The Doll Shop Downstairs and The Cats in the Doll Shop. Could you explain how you first discovered Beatrice Alexander, or Madame Alexander as she’s known, and how her story inspired you to write about the resourceful Breittlemann family?

Yona Zeldis McDonough: I remember Madame Alexander dolls from my own childhood. I longed for them though I never had one back then.  As an adult, I started collecting dolls and bought a few of Mme. Alexander’s creations for my collection. When I was reading about her early life, I found out that her father owned and operated America’s first doll hospital.  It was on the Lower East Side and the family lived in an apartment above the shop.  Beatrice (she was Bertha in those days) and her sisters were allowed to play in the doll hospital sometimes and when I learned that, I just knew: here was a perfect setting for a children’s story.

Many of your books are set in Brooklyn, where you live with your family. Why has this area of New York proved such a “fertile ground” as you put it in your work?

YZM: I love Brooklyn. It’s so vast and filled with its own history, character and even mysteries. It is both a part of New York, and yet retains a separate identity.  I grew up in Brooklyn and so it holds many associations for me

A book of letters I ought to have included in my ode to epistles and epistolaries the other day: Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom. Miss Nordstrom, the pioneering editor behind Harper’s Department of Books for Boys and Girls from 1940 to 1973, was something of a genius herself. The list of children’s classics she was responsible for publishing is staggeringly long and awesome: Little Bear, Where the Wild Things Are, Goodnight Moon, Danny and the Dinosaur, Where the Sidewalk ends, Harold and the Purple Crayon, oh and a little thing called Charlotte’s Web—to name a very few.

Dear Genius is a collection of letters she wrote to authors, illustrators, reviewers, even parents and children who had written with responses to her books. She is unfailingly poised, charming, and insightful, even when responding to criticism. And her voice, oh her wonderful voice! Her letters are simply crammed with personality—she is wry, teasing, incisive, direct, and altogether brilliant.

Her editorial letters provide a fascinating look at the history of children’s publishing in America, both on the grand scale of publishing trends and literary vision, and on the micro scale of word choices for a single line of a specific book. For instance, in a 1957 letter to Syd Hoff about Danny and the Dinosaur, an early “I Can Read” book for beginning readers:

I think you should just say “One day Danny went to the museum.” (He didn’t actually want to “see how the world looked a long, long time ago,” as you put it, do you think? Very unchildlike. He might have wanted to go to see the dead mummies, or other specific things in a museum, but I wouldn’t mention that here because you mention it on following pages. So just have a simple statement on this first page. “One day Danny went to the museum.”) It is pretty short and if you can think of one more short sentence for this page by all means add it. I can’t come up with any suggestion myself. Page 8: You’ll have to simplify what he saw on this page. NOT THAT I WANT YOU TO GET SELF-CONSCIOUS ABOUT “I CAN READ.” I told you I wanted you to let me worry about that aspect and that’s all I’m doing now. You could just say “He saw Indians. He saw bears. He saw…” I haven’t been in a museum in 150 years and can’t think of anything else, but you can.

Or, in September 1963:

Maurice, before I sent the paste-up I went through it, rereading the words, and looking at the pictures again. It is MOST MAGNIFICENT, and we’re so proud to have it on our list. When you were much younger, and had done only a couple of books, I remember I used to write you letters when the books were finished, and thank you for “another beautiful” job—or some such dopiness. Now you’re rich and famous and need no words of wonder from me. But I must send them, anyhow, when I look through Where the Wild Things Are. I think it is utterly magnificent, and the words are beautiful and meaningful, and it does just wan

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Over the fence to the farmhouse,
With laughter and repartee gay,
It's almost time to be eating again
And we're rather too far away.
There's chicken and dumplings for dinner,
With salad and vegetables fine
And fruits just fresh from the orchard
Oh who wouldn't love to dine!
Over the fence to the farmhouse
We're afraid they will not wait
And with chicken and dumplings for dinner
Twould never do to be late.

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder


If ever a writer comes to mind when I think about "comfort and joy," it's Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Her Little House books provide lifetime nourishment with their ample stores of hope, optimism, familial love, strength, and enduring pioneer spirit. I'm quite certain at least 90% of you reading this post wanted to be Laura after reading her stories -- wanted to be the kind of girl who never compromised who she was, who possessed a singular determination and always ventured forth with a brave heart.

To celebrate her 144th birthday, I decided to try two of the recipes Laura often prepared while living at Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, Missouri. They come from The Laura Ingalls Wilder Country Cookbook, a collection of 73 recipes adapted from the ones Laura pasted in a recycled scrapbook during the 30's and 40's. Besides recipes, notes, and meal ideas, she also saved clippings from newspaper food columns and cooking advice from both her mother, Caroline Ingalls, and her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane.

        
             Laura and Almanzo, 1885

Laura's cookbook is comfort personified -- old fashioned favorites which called for "foods gleaned from her kitchen garden and staples she kept in her cupboards: cornmeal, brown sugar, white sugar, spices, whole wheat flour, and white flour." Do Macaroni Casserole, Meat Loaf Supreme, Pork Pie with Sweet Potato Biscuits, Orange Nut Bread, Applesauce Cake, and Molasses Cookies conjure up visions of a wholly satisfying meal cooked in a wood-burning stove in a cozy farmhouse? Suffice to say, many of us today crave this brand of farm-to-table goodness, and experimenting with some of these old recipes might be the closest we'll ever get.

When I scanned the list of 19 Main Dishes, "Chicken and Dumplings" caught my eye. I admit a teensy obsession with dumplings in general, but I did want to try Laura's version for two primary reasons: 1) I never had this kind of dumplings growing up in Hawai'i, and 2) I wanted to compare her recipe with another I'm quite fond of. Besides, this was supposedly a favorite Sunday dinner for Laura and Almanzo. So yes, I made it on a Sunday to get the full effect ☺.



OLD-FASHIONED CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS
(6-8 servings)

1 large roasting or stewing chicken, cut in pieces
1 rib celery with leaves, cut fine
1 or 2 carrots, sliced thin
3 tsp. salt (divided use)
1/2 tsp. freshly grated pepper
1/2 tsp. mace
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk

Garth Williams‘ original graphite-and-ink cover for the E.B. White classic, Charlotte’s Web sold for $155k at auction. Altogether, 17 bids were made via internet, phone, and mail on the Heritage Auctions item.

Besides the original cover, another three items were included in the lot: “a 14 x 16.5 in. ink drawing of a web that was used to create the decorative end paper design for the book, and two 9 x 8 in. watercolors of the cover design.”

According to The Washington Post, the auction organizers originally estimated it would go for $30,000, but it exceeded expectations by more than 500 percent. 42 of Williams’ art pieces were sold in the same auction and in total, the collection grossed more than $780,000. The New York buyer for Charlotte’s Web preferred to remain anonymous.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

This coming weekend, Laura Ingalls Wilder fans and scholars from all over the country will gather in Mankato, MN, for the first-ever Laurapalooza Conference. I was invited to attend, but alas, I couldn’t swing a weekend away the week before Comic-Con. When your hubby’s a comic-book editor in San Diego, July is ALL ABOUT Comic-Con.

I’ll be LauraPaloozing in spirit, though, and eagerly following news of the conference on Twitter and at the Beyond Little House site.

Mankato, as you may know, is not only rich in LIW history, it’s the town on which Maud Hart Lovelace based the Deep Valley of her Betsy-Tacy books. As you can imagine, Mankato is high on my list of Places I Absolutely Must Visit Someday.

Laurapalooza speakers include LIW biographers John Miller, William Anderson, and Pamela Smith Hill. Visit Beyond Little House for more information.

Last month M and I finished reading Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Although I’m sure very many of you will know the book, for those of you that don’t, Little House in the Big Woods is the first book in a series of essentially autobiographical novels about a young girl growing up in rural America in second half of the 19th century.

This first book details her family’s life over the course of a year in the woods of Wisconsin and is full of descriptions of many homesteading skills, such as making butter and maple syrup, preserving food for the winter, and hunting. Such a synopsis does not do the book justice! The fact that Little House in the Big Woods came in at no. 23 in Fuse 8’s Top 100 Children’s Novel Poll should tell you that this is a special book that is definitely worth reading!

Photo: Resedabear

I was thrilled to be able to read Little House in the Big Woods to M as it was one of my favourite books as a child. To my great delight she was as inspired and enthusiastic about it as I was (and still am!). As we read the book together there were lots of new words for M – some new because of the American setting, some new because of the historical setting – and because of this, combined with the fact that she clearly loved the story and wanted to listen to it again straight away, we treated ourselves to the audiobook version of Little House in the Big Woods.

To my surprise there seems to be only version of Little House in the Big Woods available. It is an unabridged recording, comprising 4 CDs, read by Cherry Jones, an American actress who was in Erin Brockovich among other films and also starred in the TV series 24. Cherry Jones reads the novel with great conviction and her American accent certainly helped set the scene for us as we listened along.

Occasionally she is accompanied by Paul Woodiel on the violin, playing short excerpts of the fiddle music that appears throughout the novel, as played by Pa, the head of the family. What there is of the fiddle music is wonderful – adding another layer of authenticity to the story, but time and time again I felt that the producers of this audiobook had missed a trick by not letting the fiddle music really shine. For example, when there is a jig competition between two family members the dancing and the music are vividly described in the book and yet there is no music at all at this point in the CD. I don’t think this bothered M at all, but I’m sure these CDs are listened to by almost as many adults as children, and for us a bit more wonderful music would not have gone amiss!

Photo: Mhowry

I wondered if M might be surprised by the American accent, especially as some words are pronounced so differently as to be somewhat confusing (eg “herbs”), but she didn’t bat an eyelid

"Laura always wondered why bread made of corn-meal was called johnny-cake. It wasn't cake."  - Little House in the Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder

Shortly after beginning to read chapter books independently, my mother suggested I read the first of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books, Little House in the Big Woods. It was the summer I turned seven and I tore through the series (with breaks in between some of the books to read various books in the Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume canons) with fervor until I finished the last book during Christmas vacation six months later. I have particularly fond memories of reading The Long Winter during an overnight stay at my grandfather's house. I always, always knew that I would read these books with my kids. One of my first thoughts upon learning my first child would be a boy--I am not kidding--was that there went my dreams of being able to bond over the Little House books. Then I heard--from teachers and other parents--that their boys loved these books. And my visions of reading them with my children were restored.

My boys and I began reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" series last summer, when I thought they were both old enough to appreciate Little House in the Big Woods as a read aloud. They didn't just love it; they clamored for more. Good thing Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote eight more books in the series. (Though I tend to dismiss the last book, The First Four Years, on the grounds that it is disturbing and has a different tone from the rest of the series. A fact I picked up on even at the age of seven, though a recent New Yorker article shed some additional light onto this topic.)

We are now in the middle of On the Banks of Plum Creek, my favorite of the Little House books. To me, this book has more action and character development than Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie (the first two titles we read), which are heavy on the long descriptive passages. It is in this book that the individual personalities of Laura and her sister Mary become more defined--Mary as the gentle, obedient daughter and Laura as the spitfire tomboy (my older son always gets upset when Laura does something wrong and gets scolded by Pa)--and we see them in the world around them instead of just at home. Who can forget that house in the ground, or mean Nellie Oleson and her town party, or the locusts, or--most disturbing to my seven-year old mind--Laura losing her beloved rag doll, Charlotte? Oh, there is action and plenty to love in the earlier books: the image of Laura and Mary playing with a pic's bladder balloon in Little House in the Big Woods is forever burned into my brain because it just seemed so weird to me the first time I read it. And my boys don't tire of hearing about Pa and his hunting escapades, or the way they built their homes, or the various animals the the Ingalls family kept as pets and working farm animals.

Food figures prominently in Wilder's descriptions of the (often harsh) pioneer life. So much so, in fact, that Barbara M. Walker collected many of the foods mentioned throughout the course of the series in The Little House Cookbook. It is in this book that we found the recipe for johnny-cake, a bread that was a staple in Laura's childhood home. Walker describes it as, "a crusty slab of cooked cornmeal that was mostly a vehicle for syrup or gravy." The name "johnny-cake" comes from New England pronunciation of "journey cake"--a staple of colonial travelers.

Johnny-cake (adapted from The Little House Cookbook by Barbara M. Walker)

"The wind was blowing, but not too hard, and everyone was so happy and gay for it was only twenty degrees below zero and the sun shone." ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder


I didn't realize until the other day that Charles Dickens and Laura Ingalls Wilder were both born on February 7th. Definitely must give Laura a little equal time today! (Anyone who says "only twenty degrees below zero" deserves 100 birthday cakes.)

Enjoy this 10-minute video about Laura's life. It was done for a school project and is narrated by a very articulate young lady.



Wishing for something new to read about Laura? A very special book is coming!

               

On March 16th, Borrowed Names by Jeannine Atkins (Henry Holt, 2010), will be officially released! It features poems about three notable mother-daughter pairs: Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane, Madam C.J. Walker and A'Lelia Walker, and Marie Curie and Irène Joliot-Curie. The book has already received starred reviews from Booklist and School Library Journal. Pre-order your copy now! To whet your appetite, click here to read a nice excerpt.

Now, let's celebrate Laura's birthday with a nice piece of apple pie!
   
      photo by forkableblog.

Have a lovely Sunday!

More Pajama Party posts here.

Related posts about LIW on alphabet soup:

♥ My interview with Sidney Greenbush, who played Carrie Ingalls on the TV series, "Little House on the Prairie." (It gets the most hits on this blog!)

♥ "Laura for a Day" (with her gingerbread recipe).

♥ "A Heapin' Helpin' of Almanzo's Fried Apples 'n Onions."

Copyright © 2010 Jama Rattigan of jama rattigan's alphabet soup. All rights reserved.

An Interesting Approach to Exciting Youngsters About Reading
What better way to get kids interested in reading than to make them the star of their very own personalized book?

Mixtape: 10 Songs About Libraries and Librarians
Check out these fun songs about libraries and librarians, including artists such as Frank Zappa and Green Day. You can even listen in to discover why these songs made the list.

Little House on the Prairie Continues to Wow Audiences
Everyone’s beloved story is back with a new musical twist. Be sure to check out this new musical, based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s treasured classic storyline.

Baby-Sitters Club: Life After 30!
The acclaimed teenage gang gets a new twist as we ask the question: Where are they now? From Kristy Thomas to Stacey McGill, these projections will certainly bring back cherished memories.

The Caldecott, Newbery and Printz book awards go to…
John Pinkney’s exceptional illustrations were awarded the Caldecott Medal for capturing the true spirit of a classic fable. The Newbery Medal as well as the Printz Award were also given to some special talent for excellence in both children’s literature and young adult literature.

Books to Film: Martin Scorsese Continues the Trend
With the release of some truly spectacular new films based on classic children’s books, Brian Selznick’s “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” appears to be next in line.

I love Timeless Thursdays and not just because it is almost Friday. I love revisiting these books that I read when I was younger and that children or teens are still reading today. And how about this series that I thought about while perusing the shelves of the local library? Timeless Thursday is talking Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder pictured here.

Of course, when I was little, Laura Ingalls Wilder was actually Melissa Gilbert, and Pa was Michael Landon. I couldn’t wait to tune into the television show and see what Mary, Carrie, Albert, Laura, Ma and Pa were doing. I even wanted to see Nellie and mean old Mrs. Olsen. Oh, I loved that show.

Then I discovered the books, and there are so many of them. Here are the titles of the Little House on the Prairie series:
Little House in the Big Woods
Farmer Boy
Little House on the Prairie
On the Banks of Plum Creek
Old Town in the Green Groves
By the Shores of Silver Lake
The Long Winter
Little Town on the Prairie
These Happy Golden Years
The First Four Years

And a website where you can find fun and games and notes for teachers about Little House books.

What makes us love these books so much? I’ve decided it has to be the characters. We love the Ingalls and the people they come into contact with. We love hearing how they struggle, celebrate, survive, and live as a family. These are character-driven novels, and they are some of the best for kids–especially if you want them to learn about this period in history.

Do you have a favorite Little House book? If so, please share with us and tell us why.

Guest Blogger Rachael Walker is the Outreach Consultant for Reading Rockets, a national multimedia initiative which aims to inform and inspire parents, teachers, childcare providers, and others who touch the life of a child by providing comprehensive, accessible information on how to teach kids to read and help those who struggle. Rachael began her career in children’s literacy at Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), has also served as a consultant to the NEA’s Read Across America campaign, and was most recently the Executive Director of Reach Out and Read of Metro DC.

I know that in many parts of the country, kids have already started the new school year, but in our house, we still have a few weeks of summer to enjoy. So while I planned to blog today about back-to-school resources, I just couldn’t make myself do it! I just need a little more time to mentally prepare for the return of the daily packing of lunches, the establishing of the homework routine, and the morning scramble for shoes and backpacks.

There are still so many items left on our summer to do list. You may want to think about some of them for your own last days of leisure or incorporate these activities into the new school year:

• We’ve got a few day trips for book lovers yet to take: Manassas, for both my husband who has spent the summer reading Battle Cry of Freedom and my son who enjoyed Stonewall Hinkleman and the Battle of Bull Run. We’ll also make a trip to the National Museum of American History and check out the Toying with Invention exhibit as my youngest has been enjoying Steven Caney’s Invention Book and working on many of his own creations this summer.
• There’s lots of writing still on our list. Everyone in our family has summer birthdays and there are a few thank you notes still outstanding. I’m not getting many volunteers for letter writing. When it comes to writing in the summer, a few rounds of Mad Libs seems to be the favorite pencil and paper activity, though I also recommend the online version to help build up a good Mad Lib vocabulary.
• We have certainly done quite a bit of it this summer, but reading never leaves the to do list. Alex Rider has fired several imaginations in our household as has the 39 Clues and the Warriors series. Summer always gives us more time to read aloud so my husband hopes to finish up Cornelia Funke’s Inkdeath before the school year begins and I have just started reading aloud Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Farmer Boy to our youngest in the hopes that he’ll better appreciate the state fair this year.

Must add to the to do list for the kids: finish the summer math packet. Summer reading loss I don’t think we’ll have to worry about.

        
      Sidney Greenbush = adorable.


I'm just about ready to send off some questions to Sidney Greenbush, one of the identical twins who played Carrie Ingalls on the popular TV series, "Little House on the Prairie."

When I told Sidney that lots of children's book writers are also big Little House fans, she agreed to drop by for an interview. We've already gotten some great questions as a result of my post last week, but in case you missed it, and have something you want to ask Sidney, leave a comment here by the end of the week, or email me: readermail (at) jamakimrattigan (dot com).

Don't miss your chance. Thanks!