• Local Produce
  • Buy Local
  • Local Seafood
  • Local Food
  • Local Music
  • Local Art
  • Local Churches

CAPE CHARLES MIRROR

Reflections on Cape Charles and the Eastern Shore

  • Local Services
  • Local Rentals
  • Local Employment
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Classifieds
  • Pets
  • Contact Us
  • Rant and Rave
  • Asses&Villains

Laura Ingalls Wilder’s name stripped from the “Laura Ingalls Wilder Award”??

July 1, 2018 by Wayne Creed Leave a Comment

The Association for Library Service to Children  has stripped Laura Ingalls Wilder’s name from the “Laura Ingalls Wilder Award” for children’s literature. It will now be known as the Children’s Literature Legacy Award. “This decision was made in consideration of the fact that Wilder’s legacy, as represented by her body of work, includes expressions of stereotypical attitudes inconsistent with ALSC’s core values of inclusiveness, integrity and respect, and responsiveness.” – The Association for Library Service to Children

The Association, applying 21st century mores, has now decided that the Ingalls books are racist and bigoted.

Worse, Ingalls and Rose Wilder Lane — Wilder’s collaborator, editor, and daughter — have been associated with libertarian ideas (the horror).

The Little House books are a world in which commerce and devotion to family and community are essential ingredients in community life. It was private initiative, private commerce, and families that drove the settlement of the American frontier. Government officials, on the other hand, were largely invisible.

Granted, the series rarely invoked the violence that took place in removing the indigenous populations from the frontier, and race issues were largely ignored, which apparently was too much for  the people at the Association for Library Service to Children to handle.

The Little House books re-cast the American frontier from the male-dominated narratives of the “traditional” Westerns, avoiding gun violence and government law enforcement officials. Instead, the Wilder books put a central emphasis on themes of commerce, family, women, children, education, and religious faith. Brawls in whiskey-soaked saloons were not part of the narrative structure.

Rather than a gunslinger,  “Pa,” was rarely armed and accomplished his heroism through peaceful means. He was if anything only in service to his family — composed mostly of females.

Wilder did not buy into American life as one of “rugged individualism”, but offered that building a town or community of any sort requires community action.

It is through the action of several townspeople working together in The Long Winter that starvation is avoided.

Not perfect, but the Little House books still promote community, service, charity, and the role of women in American society.

 

Filed Under: Bottom, News

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search

Subscribe to the Mirror

Enter your email address to receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 388 other subscribers

Join the Conversation!

Send letters, opinion, goings on or photos to capecharlesmirror@gmail.com

Mirrors

Recent Comments

  • Stuart Bell on Did NATO Expansion Lead to Ukraine War?
  • Boy on Flavors Unleashed: Exploring the Fresh and Innovative Mexican Cuisine at Carmelitas
  • Earl Moore on Bay Creek’s Jack Fisher Convicted of Conspiracy to Defraud
  • Earl Moore on Bay Creek’s Jack Fisher Convicted of Conspiracy to Defraud
  • Paul Plante on Did NATO Expansion Lead to Ukraine War?
  • Paul Plante on Asses&Villains: Daddy and Ukraine Money
  • Shore Avenger on Bay Creek’s Jack Fisher Convicted of Conspiracy to Defraud
  • Chip on Bay Creek’s Jack Fisher Convicted of Conspiracy to Defraud
  • Dale on Bay Creek’s Jack Fisher Convicted of Conspiracy to Defraud
  • Leonard on Asses&Villains: Daddy and Ukraine Money
  • Bob on Trump is Crispy: Ties to Fauci and Covid Response Undo Him
  • BRAND on Bay Creek’s Jack Fisher Convicted of Conspiracy to Defraud
  • Paul Plante on Did NATO Expansion Lead to Ukraine War?
  • Gloria Diaz on Flavors Unleashed: Exploring the Fresh and Innovative Mexican Cuisine at Carmelitas
  • Paul Plante on Asses&Villains: Daddy and Ukraine Money
  • Unknown on Bay Creek’s Jack Fisher Convicted of Conspiracy to Defraud
  • Donna Bozza on CBES Meet the Candidates Forum Sept. 28th
  • Paul Plante on Did NATO Expansion Lead to Ukraine War?
  • Paul Plante on Op-Ed:Where is the Climate Crisis?
  • Daniel Burke on Flavors Unleashed: Exploring the Fresh and Innovative Mexican Cuisine at Carmelitas

Trending Now

  • Wachapreague Moves to Control Short-term rentals
  • Surfer Rules Summer 2023
  • Government Asserts the Defendants Lied and Cheated the IRS out of over $1.3 Billion: The Government’s Opening Statement of the United States v. Fisher
  • Aloha, Shalom and Namaste...until we meet, again
  • K-COAST Day on the Bay Aug 12th
  • Rosenwald School Awarded $1 Million State Grant
  • History Notes Special: The Boy on the Bike
  • NHPS Presents: The Untold Story: The Cape Charles Elementary School
  • Teachers: Broke and Burned Out
  • Cape Charles 4th of July 2023

Copyright © 2023 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in