Happy Birthday Laura Ingalls Wilder - I Have Thought of You Often During This, Our Long Winter. Comment to Win The Long Winter and Heroine's Bookshelf!

Amongst my circle of friends - on Twitter, Facebook and IRL, there have been many mentions recently of Laura Ingalls Wilder: the hard life she endured on the prairie and especially, as many of us have faced weekly snowstorms since the holidays, the long winter she chronicled in her novel of the same name. So, in honor of her 144th birthday today, February 7th, I give you, The Long Winter Contest! Comment with your most harrowing winter adventure (whether this year or in years' past) and I'll choose 5 people from everyone who comments by midnight, Wednesday, February 9th to receive a free copy of The Long Winter, plus, since this is also Heroine Love Month over on the Heroine's Bookshelf blog, winners will also receive a copy of The Heroine's Bookshelf: Life Lessons from Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder.

And while I'm sure none of us had to endure anything quite so harrowing as our heroine LIW (or her poor Almanzo), tales of downed wires, endless no-school days, and subzero temperatures certainly suffice!

In The Long Winter, the adventures of Laura Ingalls and her family continue as Pa, Ma, Laura, Mary, Carrie, and little Grace bravely face the hard winter of 1880-81 in their little house in the Dakota Territory. Blizzards cover the little town with snow, cutting off all supplies from the outside. Soon there is almost no food left, so young Almanzo Wilder and a friend make a dangerous trip across the prairie to find some wheat. Finally a joyous Christmas is celebrated in a very unusual way in this most exciting of all the Little House books.

Listen to an audio excerpt of The Long Winter, take The Long Winter quiz and check out all the Little House on the Prairie books.

A testament to inspirational women throughout literature, Erin Blakemore’s Heroine's Bookshelf is an exploration of classic heroines and their equally admirable authors that shows today’s women how to best tap into their inner strengths and live life with intelligence, grace, vitality and aplomb. This collection of unforgettable characters—including Anne Shirley, Jo March, Scarlett O’Hara, and Jane Eyre—and outstanding authors—like Jane Austen, Harper Lee, and Laura Ingalls Wilder—is an impassioned look at literature’s most compelling heroines, both on the page and off. Readers who found inspiration in books by Toni Morrison, Maud Hart Lovelace, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Alice Walker, or who were moved by literary-themed memoirs like Shelf Discovery and Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume, get ready to return to the well of women’s classic literature with The Heroine's Bookshelf.

Browse inside The Heroine's Bookshelf and check out Erin Blakemore's blog where all this month bloggers are celebrating their favorite literary heroines.

Comments

[Donna]

When we had our blizzard I told my sisters it was the kind of night where if we were in the Little House books we'd have to tie a rope around us to go to the barn.

[Judith Hart]

Absolutely loved Laura Ingalls Wilder's books, grew up with them, imagined myself in that era...My memories of winters when I was young...snow drifts 15 feet high, taking my sled and going to the store for milk and bread, with my beloved dog following behind me.

[Yvette]

I loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder's book growing up. I would read them again and again.

[Laura]

Ahhh...the winter of 1977-78. My senior year of high school. My parents and I were fulfilling my dream (and my dad's) of living in the country so that I could have horses. And then, during the second winter there, we found just how isolated we were and how much you could depend on your neighbors.
During one stretch of snowstorm after snowstorm, my father was snowed out and my mom and I were left to fend for ourselves in a house that was heated almost solely by a wood burning stove. Did I mention we were city girls?
While I didn't have to resort to twisting hay, I certainly learned to chop wood. And what a picture I must have made!
And...neighbor to the rescue! A neighbor went house to house (far flung that we were) to see what was needed from town. He was going to the store with horse and sleigh, the only way possible as it took days to be plowed out.
~My Long Winter adventure (not even close to LIW's)

[Katie @ cakes, tea and dreams]

I've been thinking of Laura, too, during my first "real" winter of snowstorms and ice. We've been lucky so far not to suffer much - certainly not as she did! - but the story of her long winter has inspired me to carry on through these long dark days.

[Amy @ A Faithful Journey]

Last year, we were hit hard with a blizzard and once it was all said and done, our power went out.Candles were lit everywhere around the house and every blanket we owned was pulled out and wrapped around us so tightly. I remember telling my husband that I felt like I was living on the Little House on the Prairie...which I would have LOVED to live on by the way! :)
Thanks for an amazing giveaway of two amazing books!

[Kristin Hayden]

Our furnace went out two weeks ago on the coldest weekend in Minesota this winter yet so far! :) We pulled a mettress from one of the bedrooms and our whole family slept together next to a fire and space heater, we had to wake up every hour or so to add wood.
I have to say, I too thought of how much harder life was then, but I also found a certain simpleness to it that was beautiful. Though it was cold, and EXPENSIVE, it was a wonderful memory. Those pioneer folk may have had it better than we think. :)

[Felicia]

Here is Texas we do not have much of a winter. We can be in shorts one day and then it will snow the next. (Just last week, in fact).

I always loved really LIW books when I was a kid, learning how they coped with the winter, food, etc.

[Martha]

What a great giveaway. We don't get blizzards here in San Diego but for us wimpy Californians it does get kind of chilly.

[Becca]

We spent three days without power during an ice storm in March of 1996 (i think). We spent most of the days huddled around our one working fireplace. On the morning we work to find frost on our carpet, we decided to go to a hotel. Just then, the power came on!

I thought of the Ingalls family many times during those three days, as I also have many times during this long winter of 2011.

[Dr. Blondie]

I loved the Little House on the Prairie books! I read them over and over as a child.

My most harrowing winter tale was shoveling my car out after two consecutive blizzards last February (18"+ each time).

[Lilian Nattel]

I loved that series when I was a kid so I was fascinated to discover more about the (rather more complex) real life Laura and her relationship with her daughter.

[Lilian Nattel]

Oops my link didn't work--for more on the real life Laura: http://liliannattel.wordpress.com/2009/08/06/another-late-bloomer/

[Nicole]

LIW has always been my favorite author. I began reading her books when I first learned how to read. I always felt a 'special' connection to Laura as my family moved several times throughout my childhood. I always thought that if Laura could survive, I could too!

[Kate R]

Hmmm...the closest I have ever come to The Long Winter was probably the winter of 93-94, which was my sophomore year at Smith. We had something like 25 separate storms that winter. Luckily I didn't have to shovel. Last winter in Utah was pretty bad considering we had snow in June.

However, I have never seen a storm that came close to the storms she described in The Long Winter. They sounded terrifying.

[Stacie]

When I was 4, in 1976, my sisters were in high school and had a party with all the foreign exchange students (my parents were sponsors) and other high school students. That night we got one heck of a blizzard with 2-3 feet of snow. All the 20+ students were stuck at our house and some of the students were from countries that never get snow. The students all had to stay for 3 days as it took that long for plows to get to our road. It was a full of playing in the snow, making homemade ice cream and lots of laughs....Even for a 4 year old!

[Megan]

What a great contest!
Being from Texas, I have not had just a ton of harrowing winter adventures.
However, I spent one college spring break in Connecticut (with several other Texas kids), and we got stuck in a snowstorm on the way back from a day trip to Boston. It took us hours to get back, and I'm pretty sure no one had ever driven in the snow before. The real pinnacle was when the windshield wipers stopped working, and the front passenger was leaning out the window trying to toss the wipers across the front window to wipe it off.
We were obviously super smart and really safe. :)

[Jessica M.]

This is a wonderful contest, and I had been thinking about how much I'd love to re-read Laura Ingalls Wilder's books recently.

I live in California now, where winter just means like 60 degree weather but once upon a time I lived in Ohio and boy did we get snow! My family moved there over Thanksgiving break of my 3rd grade year (from Calif. - my dad was in the military) and move-in day was harrowing but hilarious. We moved into our new house just after a really bad snowstorm and the movers were falling and sliding everywhere with all of our belongings! It was comical when it was small stuff, but definitely scary to watch them try to move couches in the ice and snow.

Thanks for the giveaway!

[Danielle_Reads]

I almost wish I had an especially harrowing winter tale to tell - I can just "imagine" a truly awful one! But the worst thing that has ever really happened was getting snowed into my apartment for two days this winter and with no shovels to get my car or my roommate's out of the several-foot-tall drifts surrounding them. We survived though and eventually most of the snow was cleaned out or pushed aside.

[Sheltiemama]

My most harrowing winter adventure took place on Valentine's Day when I was a freshman in college. We had a snowstorm that started with freezing rain. I had never driven in wintry weather before, but I was determined to get home. It took me twice as long as normal, and when I got out of my car, it was encased in ice. Stupid move, but I did make it home safely. The snow started five minutes later, and local restaurants lost a ton of business that evening.