A (kids) Book Report.

If books aren't really your thing, or kids books aren't really your thing, or you just don't care about what I've been reading then TURN BACK NOW! Because this is going to be about two of my most favourite books. One story new to me and one old.

The first book is Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

This was the best book when I was a small girl, in fact it was so good that I'm sure I read it as a young woman.

When I was really little I wanted to be a lumberjack. I thought it was probably the coolest job ever. I wanted to live in the forest and run logs down rivers. I wanted to sleep in a log cabin with a fireplace with my snowshoes nestled just outside the door. In all of the black and white photos all of the men look like they are so satisfied with their work and their life. Looking at them now they all look really tired. But that was the thing all of the men looked satisfied, there were no women to speak of. Unless of course they were women of ill-repute. All of the stories and pictures were of lumberjacks, not lumber-jills.

And then I found Little House in the Big Woods. It was from the perspective of a girl, and sure it was still a lot of, girls do this and boys do that, but it was still awesome. They lived in the forest with trees as tall as buildings. There were stories told by the fire and a fiddle song to go along. Winter was harsh, but the fire place always kept them warm. Especially when the attic was full of veggies and grains for the winter. I felt like I was in the same room basking in the warm glow of the fire. I always wanted a calico dress even though I had know idea what calico was, but it sounded (and felt) like magical fabric. Forget being a lumberjack I was going to be a homesteader. There was cow milking and chickens and hunting and bears and even a cougar attack. Like I said, awesome.

Now, on to the reason I wrote this. I happened upon a book a week or two ago that gave me those same childhood feelings of excitement and warmth all over again...

Seriously, this book is fantastic. Once you get over the whole rabbits killing rabbits thing, it's beautiful. I read it with relish. Plants were described through scent and feeling. Each rabbit had a name that resounded in my head after reading. Hazel-rah floats through the mind like a whisper on the breeze. And the best part are the creation stories. Stories told by the rabbits of how they came to be. Stories of El-ahrairah the Prince with a thousand enemies and of Frith. Stories similar to our own creation myths told with just as much importance and reverence. These stories were as necessary as food.

This story was one that I held, and hold, close to my heart.

Anyway enough with the literary gushing. If you haven't read it you should. I promise you will love it. Maybe it will remind you of a past book that you have picked up in awhile that you should.

Mariee Sioux kind of makes me feel all child-like and wonder-filled too.