Sue's Reviews > Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography

This book consists of the original manuscript written by LIW in the tablets in her home at Rocky Ridge in Mansfield, Missouri. She wanted it to be published, but it never was accepted in this form. Instead, she and her daughter used the material in it to form the "Little House" series and many stories and novels by Rose Wilder Lane. So this is the original source material that was enlarged and then fictionalized to become the Laura's books. It was fascinating to read the original and compare it to her later fiction and how she learned to develop a story arc and make the incidents fit into the fictional family's lives. The annotations are extensive and quite interesting, as well as the appendices. When I was in DeSmet, SD, the current owner of the Loftus store asked me if I had bought the book. I told her I had just bought it from the Memorial Society and she advised me that I should read a few pages of Laura's writing through then go back and read the annotations, otherwise it was too hard to follow the story. She was right and I used that method throughout. If you are a fan of the "Little H0use" series, this is definitely worth a read.