My father brought these books home for me one by one beginning when I was five years old. He worked on Madison Avenue at the time, and I remember the thrill on the evenings he walked through the door with a white F. A. O. Schwarz bag in hand with a tell-tale yellow cover showing through. The whole series had the yellow covers with appealing illustrations from Garth Williams. My mother read the whole series to me then, and I reread them several times on my own. They still hold pride-of-place on my bookshelf. I read them again a number of years ago and was amazed at what a different story they tell to an adult and a mother.

I was seven and held the books as a firm favorite when the series was televised. I already wore my hair in two braids and had a distinct overbite –larger than but not completely unlike Melissa Gilbert’s. For a few years often I heard that I looked just like Laura on Little House on the Prairie. It was a popular show and I considered it a great complement. It was enough to make up for the liberties the show took with the story and only made me love the books more.