photographs by Christopher G. Knight
Laura Ingalls lived on the Midwestern prairie over one hundred years ago, and Meribah Knight lives near modern Boston. Yet Meribah is fascinated with Laura's life, so different from her own. Meribah's mother has read her the "Little House" books - about how Laura's father shot a bear, about churning butter and baking bread, and about the lonesome moan of the wind through the woods of Wisconsin.
One night, Meribah asks her mother how far you’d have to travel to find the big woods today. Her mother tells her that many of the places mentioned in the "Little House" books are still there: There is a place called Pepin where the big woods were, there is still a Plume Creek, and there still a little town called De Smet on the prairie. Best of all, her mother promises her that when school lets out the whole family will travel to South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, to see the places where Laura really lived.
Finally, the big day arrives. Meribah, her mom, dad, and brother Max fly to Minnesota, pick up a camper, and they’re off! The trip holds some wonderful surprises as well as a few disappointments, but there are times when Meribah feels that just around a bend, or in a grove of cottonwoods, there may be a little girl named Laura watching, and waiting to say hello...
Fans of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books will want to join Meribah as she sees for herself all the places the Ingallses lived, and comes to understand what has changed and what has persisted from Laura's world.