A scrapbook of all things Laura--115 pages and it could have been twice as long for me. Shouldn't I get a life of my own instead of living a life of a woman who died the year before I was born?
Nah. I was born and raised in one place. While it would be interesting to gather up a similar scrapbook about my life and times, it's more exciting to live in hers.
This gives me plenty of room to roam about in her memories--he's collected photographs, both modern and historical, illustrations, maps and just a little text to hold them together. Arranged them according to the actual timeline, not the condensed one she uses in her stories. While he's careful to speak of the books as "her stories about her childhood," his historical narrative borrows heavily from the books and thus, is mostly not to be trusted.
On one page he has two illustrations from On the Banks of Plum Creek. One by Helen Sewell and Mildred Boyle and one by the later illustrator Garth Williams. They show different scenes, so they can't really be compared--but I can't help comparing them anyway. I think my first introduction to the books, circa 1964, must have been the first set. I just like those illustrations better. Yeah, they're cutesy and simplistic, but they're more in tune with the people of the stories. The clothes are done better.
Someone should do a reprint with them both. I'd buy it.
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