Those of us who read the Little House on the Prairie Series as children have been eagerly awaiting Laura Ingalls Wilder’s posthumous autobiography Pioneer Girl. The unedited, previously unpublished draft of the autobiography was originally written in 1929 served as the foundation for the Little House series after it was rejected for publication. A columnist and editor, Wilder wrote about the 16 years her family moved through the mid-West, heavily describing the land and the work. Unfortunately, the wait for this fantastic annotated autobiography is long, so here are some read alikes the work through while you’re waiting.
Little House in the Ozarks: The Rediscovered Writings by Laura Ingalls Wilder
This compilation contains over 140 articles that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote from 1911-1929 and mostly published in Farmers Week. They describe life on a Missouri Farm and of a much simpler life. If what drew you to Prairie Girl was the nonfiction writing of Wilder; then Little House in the Ozarks is sure to please.
Pioneer Girl by Bich Minh Nguyen
Ultra educated but unemployed, Lee Lien returns home to help her Vietnamese immigrant parents run their restaurant. Fascinated since childhood by her mother’s broach, Lee imagined it once belonged to Laura Ingalls Wilder-left in Saigon by Wilder’s daughter, Rose. One day, Lee’s brother disappears suddenly, with a cryptic message attached to the broach. Lee begins to wonder, and then obsess over if there’s any truth to her fantasy. Her clues lead her to interesting parallels between Laura and Rose and her and her own mother. If you’re interested in Laura Ingalls Wilder in a less academic sense, this engaging and character driven novel will delight.