Old Town in the Green Groves: Laura Ingalls Wilder's Lost Little House Years
Grade 4-6-It is somewhat startling that Rylant should choose to  cover a period of time about which Wilder herself chose not to  write. Here the Ingalls leave their farm on the banks of Plum  Creek to spend several years in Burr Oak, IA. Pa's determination  is tested, but his pioneering spirit and hard work coupled with  Ma's essential support and unending labor see them through. The  death of a new baby who arrives at the opening of the novel is  clearly painful to all; a birth near its closure is a reminder  that life goes on. After several different homes in Iowa, the  family returns to Plum Creek, where Wilder continued the story  in By the Shores of Silver Lake (HarperCollins, 1953).  LaMarche's illustrations wisely focus more on things than on  people, which helps to reduce their incongruity with Garth  Williams's drawings. The characters are somewhat different here.  Laura seems less of a tomboy and enjoys tea parties and talking  about the dolls and rich furnishings of their small-town  neighbors. Some of the events match quite closely with known  biographical details, while others are definitely fictionalized.  Rylant enjoys detailed descriptions of the flora and fauna much  more than the original narrator. These small differences will  not matter a whit to those insatiable for further Laura stories.  For purists who want the classics left alone and are sure Wilder  is rolling in her grave, the whole idea is strictly sacrilege.  For most everyone else, this is neither a necessary nor valuable  addition.Carol A. Edwards, Sonoma County Library, Santa Rosa, CACopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.