Happy Land

The children and I have been reading selections from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books since just before Christmas. It's been a wonderful retreat into my own childhood love of those books. My Memaw gave me the boxed set for some Christmas or birthday when I was around 7, and I fell in love with them. I reread the whole series several times, and I reread my favorites more times than I can remember.

My children have been just as enamored with the stories, particularly the stories of Laura's childhood -- making snow candy, getting oranges for Christmas, living in the sod house. It's all so different than the lives they live, and they're fascinated by it.

So when I found a Happy Land, tribute CD of music from the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, I had to get it.

How is it? In a word, wonderful. And the children absolutely adore it. On our first listen, they got up to dance! It's been their first choice of music for the last few weeks. I like folk music, so I was relatively certain that I would like it, but their enthusiasm for it rather surprised me. I suppose I shouldn't have been, since they also like music of all sorts.

I would highly recommend the CD for anyone who love the books. Even if you haven't read them in a while, you will remember at least a few of them!