Mary Leaves Little House
Elizabeth Kimmel Willard
Harper Collins Publishers
ISBN: 978-0-06-000906-9, $15.99, 2008.
If you have always liked the Laura Ingalls Wilder series, you will love "Mary Leaves Little House." In the Laura Ingalls Wilder series, it focuses on her life on the prairie and its many struggles. Mary Ingalls is the older sister of Laura who because of scarlet fever is legally blind.
Rather than being a burden to her family, her family pitches together to get Mary an education and a future. Mary enrolls in the Iowa College of the Blind. She has always been the more silent sister who doesn't have as much spunk as Laura. Will Mary always be the wall flower or will she ever get the respect that others can.
"Mary Leaves Little House" tells the story of Mary's time at the college and her many adjustments to living away from home. Mattie has anger issues and sees Mary as a spineless wallflower who she can verbally abuse. Mary accepts her lot in life but just how much abuse can Mary accept before she blows up?
The author Elizabeth Kimmel Willard did her research on using actual facts about Mary Ingalls history on the college's campus. Its written in true easy to read "Little House" style. I hope that this author writes many more books like this one featuring the oldest Ingalls girl. I'm also very impressed that the founders of the college cared that much about these special people with disabilities to develop a college especially for them.
