Our Favorite Books

Good morning, everyone!

I hope you will join me in posting your favorite book/books while you were growing up. Or what you read to your children, even.

My favorite of all times is Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House on the Prairie.”

I have a story behind the love of this book. It began when we moved to Big Bend, CA, the setting for “Just Claire”, Gallagher Springs, CA.

So much of what I wrote about in that book comes from personal experience, and the one real character in “Just Claire” who made a huge impression with me was my teacher then, Mrs. Riley.

Mrs. Riley read a few pages of “Little House on the Prairie” every day after lunch. What I did not know until years later shocked me. I made contact with her and wrote her a letter telling her she helped me during a most difficult time in my 10 year-old life.

We wrote back and forth for a year and in one letter I told her I read all the Laura Ingall Wilder books to my children.

This is when she revealed a tidbit that blew me away. She said that she was a great-niece to Almanzo Wilder and that is why she always read The Little House books in her class.

Wow!

I was so excited that I told her my husband would take me to her house to meet her again. I had not seen her in 15 years.

We stopped by her home on our way to Oregon. Sadly, I met only her sister as Mrs. Riley had died a few months before.

I cried. Right there on Mrs. Riley’s and her sister’s front porch.

When I gained control of my emotions, I glanced at Mrs. Riley’s sister. Tears had filled her eyes. And she said she was sorry I didn’t get to see Mrs. Riley one more time.

What was Mrs. Riley’s maiden name? Wilder, Mona Wilder.

In the comments section, please share your favorite book/books and you don’t need to add a book cover image, either!