PRAIRIE TALE WINNERS and the SECRET BONUS GIFT WINNER

PRAIRIE TALE
BY MELISSA GILBERT

WINNERS

THANKS TO KRISTIN WITH
SIMON & SCHUSTER FOR SPONSORING
THIS GIVEAWAY

THE WINNERS HAS BEEN NOTIFIED
BY EMAIL AND HAVE UNTIL NOON
ON AUGUST 20 TO CONTACT ME WITH
THEIR NAME AND ADDRESS. THE SAME GOES
FOR OUR BONUS WINNER COMING UP NEXT!

WINNERS OF PRAIRIE TALE ARE....

#19 Vicki

#4 bermudaonion


CONGRATULATIONS!

NOW....AS STATED IN THE ORIGINAL GIVEAWAY
A SECRET BONUS GIFT WILL GO TO THE
PERSON WHO PICKED MY FAVORITE LITTLE
HOUSE SERIES BOOK AND IF MORE THAN ONE
PERSON PICKS IT, I SAID I WOULD CHOOSE
A NUMBER AT RANDOM FROM THOSE
ELIGIBLE! AND SO IT HAPPENED THAT MANY
CHOSE MY FAVORITE AS WELL!
MY FAVORITE "LITTLE HOUSE" BOOK IS...


LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS
by Laura Ingals Wilder
illustrated by Garth Williams

Laura Ingalls's story begins in 1871 in a little log cabin on the edge of the Big Woods of Wisconsin. Four-year-old Laura lives in the little house with her Pa, her Ma, her sisters Mary and Carrie, and their trusty dog, Jack.

Pioneer life is sometimes hard, since the family must grow or catch all their own food as they get ready for the cold winter. But it is also exciting as Laura and her folks celebrate Christmas with homemade toys and treats, do the spring planting, bring in the harvest, and make their first trip into town. And every night they are safe and warm in their little house, with the happy sound of Pa's fiddle sending Laura and her sisters off to sleep.

And so begins Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved story of a pioneer girl and her family. The nine Little House books have been cherished by generations of readers as both a unique glimpse into America's frontier past and a heartwarming, unforgettable story.

A BIT OF A BIO:

Laura Ingalls Wilder was born in 1867 in the log cabin described in Little House in the Big Woods. She and her family traveled by covered wagon across the Midwest. Later, Laura and her husband, Almanzo Wilder, made their own covered-wagon trip with their daughter, Rose, to Mansfield, Missouri.

When LAURA INGALLS WILDER started writing her classic "Little House" book series in 1932, she had no idea of creating fame for herself or the places where she had lived. She wrote simply to preserve tales of a lost era in American history, the pioneer period she vividly recalled from her growing-up years on the midwestern frontier in the 1870's and 1880's. When Laura completed her eight-volume series in 1943, she had achieved a lasting and substantial literary picture of pioneer life as she had experienced it in Wisconsin, Kansas, Minnesota, and South Dakota.

"I had no idea I was writing history," Laura remarked when her books were well known both in America and in foreign countries where they were translated. (The books are now printed in over 40 languages.) But readers of all ages accepted the Ingalls and Wilder families as chosen friends. Thousands wrote to Laura at her home on Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, Missouri. Fans sought out the sites of her books and stopped to visit her in her Ozark Mountain home, right up to her death in 1957 at the age of 90.

On a personal note, I taught this book many times and one of the things I showed my students using a time line was when Laura Ingalls Wilder was born and when she died and how MUCH she had seen in her lifetime...going from covered wagon to cars and jets! The children always marveled at it as did I...I think that is why her books are so important. I always told them that she was the J.K. Rowling of her day. When she first wrote, she never expected there to be such a demand by children for more of her books. I remember parts of this as a child myself and adored all her books. I hope all of you may someday enjoy her work, whether for yourself or even better by sharing it with a child!

If you want some LITTLE HOUSE fun, go here and you can take a quiz to see if you are a "Laura" or a "Nellie"...and I know some of you commented on that Nellie!

AND THE SECRET BONUS GIFT WINNER IS...

#9 Renee G

WHO WILL RECEIVE OF COURSE, A NEW COPY OF
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS!

AS WELL AS 2 OTHER BOOKS FROM
BINGO'S BOOK BIN...THEY ARE NEW ARCS,
NEVER READ, FOR THE FOLLOWING TITLES:

MR. AND MISS ANONYMOUS by Fern Michaels
and
A LUCKY CHILD by T. Buergenthal

ALL OF YOU ENJOY YOUR BOOKS!
AND THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED!