Mikey sang and danced in a Filipino concert on Saturday. No, we aren’t Filipino. The concert musical director knows Mikey through church, and he and the rest of the choir were invited to perform.
I have a few friends with children involved in the theater. Because Mikey sings, they ask me every year if Mikey would like to join their troupe. I ask him every year, and every year he answers with a resounding no, which thrills me. Theaters seems like a lot of work for everyone involved.
This past weekend confirmed my suspicions. Theater is a prison of extracurricular activities! The practices, the rehearsals, the costume fittings, the late nights…it was never ending. Thanks goodness the show was only one night. And okay, sure, my friends were right: the end result is worth the weeks of hard work. The kids were really, really cute.
When I asked Mikey what it was like to hear the audience applaud and scream, he said it was addicting. Good grief. I asked him if that meant he wanted to do children’s theater, but he said he still wasn’t interested. “I’ve got enough on my plate, mom. I need time for Legos.”
I did the Snoopy Dance all the way back to the car. I remain a free woman!
My first act as a free woman on Sunday was to finish up a so-so book. (Not worth mentioning.) That took most of the day, so it wasn’t until evening that I remembered to respond to comments from Friday. I wish I had done it sooner. Had I done so, I would have picked up the Anne of Green Gables series when I was at Barnes & Noble hours earlier. They are, apparently, a must reread for those who remember the series. Jenn‘s comment was especially good. She called Gilbert her “first and forever crush,” and all of a sudden I remembered a little something about Anne of Green Gables. Wasn’t Gilbert one of the neighbor kids? Did he tease Anne? (Don’t tell me!) I still don’t remember much, but the name Gilbert made me feel a rush of warm and fuzzy. I might have had a crush on Gilbert. Do you remember your first book crush?
The title of First and Forever Book Crush for me goes to Almanzo Wilder from the Little House on the Prairie series. Oh, that Manly. I remember reading about Laura standing on her porch, pregnant and dizzy, watching the wheat. Almanzo bounded up the stairs and kept her steady while he helped her to a chair. My 10 year old self considered that the pinnacle of romantic gestures. In a close second was when he picked her up at her boarder’s house during a snowstorm to bring her home to Ma and Pa for the weekend. The temperature dropped so low on the sleigh ride home (-40�) that Almanzo stopped frequently to knock the ice off the horses’ nostrils. The only reason that horse moment didn’t come in first place is because I’ve always been more practical than romantic, even at 10 years of age. You want me to travel in weather so cold it freezes the breath in your nostrils? Thanks, but I think I’ll just hangout in this creaky rocking chair next to the fire and darn socks.
I’m going to have to read the Laura Ingalls series, too.
That’s the real Almanzo Wilder in the picture above. Doesn’t that make your eyebrows waggle a little? I remember looking at the illustrations in the books and thinking it was a good thing Almanzo Wilder was a nice guy, because he was built like a cast iron skillet and had the face of a wizened tortoise. The real Manly: not a troll. It explains the frozen sleigh ride, that’s for sure.
There is something so special about those books we read when growing up. Anne of Green Gables and Little House took pride of place on my bookshelves. I always loved Almanzo too, there was something so sweet and gentle about him, yet as Laura put it, “Manly”. And what a tease Gilbert was, I can remember being as angry with him as Anne was when he pulled her braid, but slowly falling for him as she did! Carrots!
Jennifer
See, I remember a little something about braid tugging with Gilbert. Oh, man. I can’t WAIT to reread these books!
Why have I not re-read LHOTP sooner?? Manly was my first book crush too…oh how I loved to read the scenes when he and Laura first met. Can’t wait to drop by the library!!!
Yes! And when he would ride out every Friday to pick her up from her teaching position? LOVE. (Except the frozen sleigh ride, as terribly romantic as it was.)
First of all: �I�ve got enough on my plate, mom. I need time for Legos.�–love.
As for a book crush, I can’t seem to recall. I remember swooning a time or two while reading a book, but no one in particular stands out in my mind. The closest thing I’ve got: young Sherlock in Young Sherlock Holmes. Did you ever see that movie? I had the biggest crush on that boy, brown plaid deerstalker, and all. That probably explains a lot . . .
I never saw that movie, but I’ll bet Mikey and Nico would love reading Sherlock Holmes together! And any guy in plaid goes up a few rungs on the ladder, if you ask me.
You will love the Anne of Green Gables books. There are a number of books by Lucy Maud
Montgomery. I loved these books as a child and all three of my daughters love them as well.
When one of our daughters was planning her wedding, her “bachelorette” party was a dinner
at home with her girl friends, great food and wine, finished off with the entire Anne of Green Gables films. Around 5 hours!
The one from Canada is gorgeous to watch. Beautiful scenery, wonderful actors and the music
is so lovely. One of the girls in our church had her bridesmaids walk to the theme. Well worth the time to read the book and then to watch the film. Make certain it is the one filmed in Canada.
Cyndee
Emily is the series I remember reading and loving. I’ll have to reread that, too.
Oh dear. I think my first book crush was Calvin O’Keefe from “A Wrinkle in Time.” Who could compare to a handsome, athletic math whiz, who still somehow felt out of place in the world and was madly in love with me (ie Meg.) I must have a soft spot for literary redheads because I also crushed wildly on Ron Weasley (as an ADULT! shameful!)
Yes! Calvin O’Keefe. Thanks for reminding me!
Me too! Me too! (Gilbert is a close second, though.)
Really! I think that was my SIL’s crush, too. I know A Wrinkle in Time is one of her all-time favorite books. She gave it to Mikey, too, for Christmas. I need to read it.
Oh yes, Almanzo was probably my first book crush too. I thought he was so grown up and chivalrous to Laura! I was smitten. Plus reading Farmer Boy about him growing up was such a cool experience. I read it after I’d read all the books about Laura’s family and it was like looking at someone’s baby pictures after you knew them as an adult first.
I never read Farmer Boy. If I recall correctly, Manly was a bit older than Laura, right? Sly devil.
I loved AOGG, and it was one of my parenting highlights when my daughter read the entire series the summer between her 6th and 7th grade. That sort of made up for her never getting into the Little House books, which were also favorites of mine.
As for my own crushes, I think my first was Atticus Finch–which I suspect makes me really weird. (But then, back in kindergarten when my older cousins were all swooning over Donny Osmond and Keith from the Partridge Family and asked me who I liked, I said “Andy Williams.” I heard about that one for years.) But Atticus was so good, and so smart, and he saw how great Scout was, and it was so tragic how he’d lost his wife and you could just tell he’d really loved her…
Oh, how I LOVED To Kill A Mockingbird. LOVED. Harper was one of my names for a girl.
First of all, the real Manly is super hot. I’m just gonna say it.
Second, I think my first book crush was Professor Lupin from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I’m ashamed to say that my superficial self was disappointed by the casting in the movie when it finally came out (sorry, David Thewlis).
My adult self would probably agree with Rita. Atticus Finch was such a strong, caring, devoted, and fair man, even if he was slightly emotionally detached from his children.
Many is SUPER hot. Those icy Viking eyes! They’re pretty enough to go on a sleigh ride in -40� weather.
I read the Harry Potter books so fast that I can’t remember all the characters–and because of that I have never seen the movies. I don’t want it ruined for me, so I’ve been waiting until I reread the series at a normal pace.
Oh, he was my first book crush also! When I was in college her home that she wrote all of the books in was only about an hour and a half away and I’m still kicking myself that I never visited it. I plan to give my niece a set of Little House on the Prairie books for Christmas this year.
I’m curious, were you able to go to Barnes and Noble and get the entire set of Anne of Green Gables? It was like finding the holy grail when I went to find them. I finally found a set on Amazon. And they must be a hot commodity because I’m constantly getting emails from Amazon asking if I want to sell my complete set.
That’s a total college thing to do. I wouldn’t have gone, either, and then I would have kicked myself years later.
No, I hadn’t read the comments closely before I went to B&N. Had I done so, I would have bought the series…at least I thought I would have! I didn’t know that they weren’t readily available. Typical. Kids these days have lousy taste in books.
If you have a Kindle or iPad, most of the AoGG series is available for free via Project Gutenberg. The only ones that they didn’t have were I think “Rilla of Ingleside” and “Anne of Ingleside” which I guess means those two are still in copyright.
Sigh…Gilbert…
Catching up here – just got back from 5 days in Portland OR, which I LOVED. But the best part might be Powell’s bookstore – it is amazing! Not only takes up a whole city block, but it’s all the old buildings cobbled together – one corner looks like it must have been an old Woolworths, for example. SO may books – we went back our last night there and just sat in the coffeeshop reading. You can even take books off the shelves and take them in there to look at and read before or without buying. I thought about you and all your wonderful book-loving followers :)
Oh – and as to theater. Both my girls have done/are doing theater. The younger one just got cast for the three plays in school this year. She will be Toby in Sweeney Todd (I know, odd choice of a play for kids), Abigail in The Crucible (yet another intense one), and then Beauty and the Beast. It is a HUGE commitment, but she is very serious about it . (And we have already told Grandma she won’t be able to handle Sweeney Todd!)
I missed you, Susan! I keep hearing about the wonder that is Powell’s. I want to go!
Powell’s is truly amazing, I remember it from our ventures down south as a child, and then revisiting as a teenager. Must get my passport renewed and head down again. They were the only place I could find a newer copy of Garbage Delight. I kind of gasp-swoon-teared-up when I found it
One of the other wonderful things about it is finding books I didn’t know about by authors I like. If it didn’t take 9-10 hours to fly there I’d go back soon. Powells and super-fresh seafood and non-humid weather was like a dream come true!
Thanks! There is a science museum there too that your boys might really like. Gorgeous falls and hiking trails too.
Chiming in to extol the wonder that is Powell’s. One of my favorite memories is of the day a friend and I gave ourselves the whole day to go there. We cleared our calendars and told ourselves we’d stay as long as we’d like. Bliss. One of the best parts of living in Portland.
I just re-read the whole Little House series, and I had forgotten how awesome it is! The romance, the adventure, the instructions on how to make head cheese! I really went away amazed at how people could take care of themselves. I need some of those survival skills!
And yeah, Almanzo is a fox. You have to be if your nickname is Manly. ;)
The romance, the adventure, the instructions on how to make head cheese!
This made me laugh out loud! +100 points.
The Little House books were the first books I remember my Mom sharing with me. They were the first series I ever read, and they were the books that made me fall in love with reading. A few months ago I reread the whole series again. It was interesting to view the Ingalls experience as an adult. I picked up on so much more. I understood Ma and her struggle to rasie young ladies in an uncivilized world, Pa perplexed me in his constant need to move, and during the long winter I realized just how near to starving to death they were. It was like reading new books.
And then there was my best friend Anne with an E. Oh how I love theose books, all of them. I need to read them all again, it’s been a few years.
Yeah! What was with Pa? Even as a kid, I would get totally annoyed with him. He seemed like a free-spirit, and that just didn’t sit well with my up-tight 10 year old self.
I don’t know, Pa had the American spirit that settled the country. Else we’d all be living on the East Coast, haha. I agree with what you said, and now that I’m a mom, it made me think differently about Laura’s loss of her son and the impact that must have had on her. LMM also goes into these topics in her later Anne books.
Why can’t I remember my first book crush? It certainly had to be more important than my first real crush (Stanley, 1st grade). I think it must have been overshadowed by my first cartoon crush – He-Man. I thought I’d die because I was so in love with him.
Frank Hardy might be my second book crush.
I’m definitely an odd bird, if those are to be taken into account!
Stanley! What a name. :) I had a crush on Bat Man, followed quickly by Bo Duke from The Dukes of Hazard.
All I remember about Stanley was that we also read a book called “Stan, Stan the Doorman” and thinking I didn’t want *my* Stanley growing up to be a doorman because I wanted us to be rich (because, obviously, you marry your first grade crush, right?).
Oh Jules. Yes, I think I had a three-way tie for my first book man-crush. Manly was certainly on the list (far, far cuter in real life than poor Dean Butler) – I always liked when he showed up on Christmas eve with candy for the family and a bar pin for Laura. He was tied with Gilbert (who was well-played by Jonathan Crombie), who, of course, won my heart because of his dedication to Anne. However, my third little book crush (all around the age of 9 or 10, I might add), was Len O’Dell from the “Grandma’s Attic” series by Arletta Richardson. It was a rotating door of man-crushes in my little playhouse in the backyard. One week I was married to deal Gilbert, the next week Almanzo was squiring me around the back yard, and finally, Len was asking me to go for a buggy ride on the swing set. Active imagination? You bet ya! But that’s just one of the many reasons I LOVE books. :) I know you’re going to love Anne of Green Gables (I just re-read them for the umpteenth time)…
I love the “In Grandma’s Attic” books. For some reason my daughter can’t get into them.
This series is not ringing a bell for me! I have to check it out. :)
My first book crush is a bit obscure; I had the most enormous crush on Jethro, the older brother, from the book “The Diary of Jeb and Abigail,” by Jean Fritz. He was handsome and intelligent, and a MinuteMan during the Revolutionary War! Be still, my heart.
Subsequent crushes: Teddy, of L.M. Montgomery’s “Emily” series {which I love even more then the “Anne” series, with the exception of “Anne of the Island”}, Gilbert, and oh, man, I cannot remember the name, but one of the seraphim {or nephilim – obviously i need to reread this book!} from “Many Waters,” by Madeleine L’Engle. Oh, and Dave, from “The Young Unicorns,” also by Madeleine L’Engle.
{In films, though, at eight years old, I had a ridiculously huge crush on C. Thomas Howell’s character in the movie “Gettysburg”- now I look back and have to laugh – that’s what I get for having parents who were huge Civil War buffs!}
TEDDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I forgot that was him name, but you’re right! I did have a crush on him! Oh, wow. You know, with both boys I wanted to use the name Theodore and call them Teddy. I was pretty obsessed with the idea, but my husband wasn’t as enamored. I wonder if it was because of the Emily books that I loved the name so much? How funny!!
Teddy, oh, Teddy. Tall, dark, handsome, sensitive, and artistic…SWOON!!
I reread the “Emily” series every couple years or so – I fall in love with Teddy all over again each time. :)
{and I adore the name “Teddy” for a boy. So darling!}
I really love all of LMM’s books. My favorites might be the Emily books, which could be one reason I named my daughter Emily.
This reminds me of another big book crush: Nathaniel of The Witch of Blackbird Pond! Ah, for a sailor who isn’t threatened by an independent woman!
I also wanted to name my son Nathaniel and call him Nat, but my husband wasn’t into it.
Gilbert, yes, and Almanzo Wilder and Calvin O’Keefe for sure.
But I still have a special place in my heart for Will Stanton of The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper. He’s just such a brave, dogged character. The moment when he has to hide the truth of his identity (Youngest of the Old Ones) from his beloved big brother near the beginning of the final book, taking away his brother’s memories with an uprush of tiny white butterflies, just killed me – still does. I’m a sucker for a tragic hero, making difficult choices and doing the right thing, even though it’s hard.
I <3 Will Stanton 4ever!
Tragic hero = HOT. As I’ve gotten older, my book crushes have been a bit more tortured, a bit more difficult to like all the time.
I don’t think I ever read the whole Anne series. I am going to reread the first and then pass it on to my daughter. She has already read all the little house books (but not the associated ones). She has red hair and is rather artistic, I think she would find Anne a kindred spirit.
I’m not sure I read the whole series, either. I can’t remember! I’m going to the library today, that’s for sure.
Oh, oh! I am remembering how much I wanted my own German soldier after reading Summer of My German Soldier.
I love this discussion!
I’m loving this discussion, too! I’ll check that book out.
Oh, I forgot about him. But yes, him, too!
Oh that Mikey! I love that kid!
I had forgotten about Almanzo Wilder. Yeah, I think I was in love, too. After that it was Horatio Hornblower (what a horrible name!) and then Strider from Lord of the Rings. sigh
I wonder what on earth C.S. Forester was thinking with that name. I’ve only read one book of his. I can’t remember the name, but it was as close as he ever got to writing about homosexuality. Quite a risky move in those times.
I’m pretty sure that I watched Anne of Green Gables and Little House on the Prairie long before I ever got my hands on the books. Bummer.
I think my first book crush was Nancy Drew’s boyfriend Ned (whose name I had to look up because I forgot it). I definitely remember thinking he was awesome since he didn’t have any issues with Nancy being an independent woman out there solving mysteries! And, he still had the tall, muscular, college student thing going for him, too. :)
I never saw the Anne movies (series?) but I did watch much of Little House. The show was so popular, though, that it veered away from the books after awhile. You wouldn’t be rehashing plot lines if you read the books, if that helps.
I think it was a tie for me between Almanzo Wilder and Laurie Laurence, of Little Women. Remember him? Oh how I loved to read all those books. It’s time to revisit!
~Kelly
I thought of Laurie when I thought of early book crush too!
I didn’t read the Little House books until I was an adult.
Oh Laurie Laurence…..yes…. I swooned over him.
Do I remember Laurie?! He’s my second crush! I couldn’t believe it when Jo didn’t pick him. That was my first every Book Rage. Supposedly, the old geezer she ended up with was a far better pick for her, but my 10 year old mine doesn’t remember it that way.
If I remember correctly, Louisa May Alcott was so annoyed that everyone wanted Jo and Laurie to get together that she purposefully kept them apart. Not sure how true that is, though.
Oh, Laurie. Him, too!
The real Almonzo was very handsome. I have never read Anne of Green Gables.
Holden Caufield. Yes, I had a crush on a guy that potentially was telling his story from a mental hospital. I was young and it wasn’t a harbinger for my dating life (maybe). I liked the way he ‘talked’ he would ‘say’ things like ‘crap’ which was a cuss word and no one I knew that was young was allowed to cuss. Writing this I realize what an odd egg I am, hah.
BTW, Mikey’s ‘addicting’ comment was hilarious!
Holden Caufield! There’s a name from the past. I read that book as an adult, and I’m so glad I did. I’m sure I would have missed everything that made it special had I read it as a child.
I didn’t read that book until I was in college…. I never had a crush on him, but I was fascinated by him because he broke every rule about pretending you had all your stuff together, and he was so free because of it. I still call money “dough” to this day, in tribute to him.
Awe, thanks you’re too sweet. :)
These comments have unearthed a few forgotten second, third, fourth crushes. My poor husband, how can he possibly live up to all these characters? This is the first time I’ve ever found fault with the love of reading ;). As if that’s going to stop me, I’ve got new crushes to find and old ones to embrace once again.
I couldn’t agree more. Reading can be dangerous for any relationship. ;)
I think my first book crush was Percy, The Scarlet Pimpernel. Gilbert was, to my mind, always Anne’s. I can probably recite large portions from the series I’ve re-read them so many times over the years.
I love that you are so loyal that you couldn’t even consider having a crush on Gilbert. :) That makes me even more excited to read the book! Clearly L.M. Montgomery did a great job with her characters.
I’ve never read Anne of Green Gables! Based on the discussion here, sounds like I need to.
Who didn’t have a crush on Almanzo?! I’m forever curious about the apples n’ onions his mother made and, just the other day, explained to my husband how his family cut ice for their ice house. I vividly remember the little engagement ring he gave Laura and their wedding. We can’t forget Cap Garland though! To me, he was the cool, rambunctious, older boy in school that all the girls drooled over. Then he went into the blizzard with Almanzo to find the wheat that would save the town?! Cap definitely had a place in my heart.
Above all though, Mr. Theodore “Laurie” Lawrence was the man of my dreams and the first character I was just certain I had very real feelings for. When Christian Bale was cast as him in the movie.. oh my… I may still have feelings for Laurie to this day. Little Women is easily my most re-read book over the years. I never really liked Mr. Brooke but the stories of Meg and him setting up their little home heavily influenced my young heart back in the day. Little Women still holds such a significant place in my heart that there’s a quote from Marmee that I very seriously considered adding as a reading in our wedding ceremony. There’s some crazy for your Monday ;)
Cap Garland I don’t remember–though with a name like that, it’s easy to imagine him as much admired older boy with a wild streak.
I don’t remember the apples and onions, but I do remember the engagement ring. I remember when she cam back in the house and Ma saw it on her finger and that was that. I also remember that she was married in black!
Apples n’ onions fried together! Jules, it’s from Farmer Boy, which is my second favorite of the series after These Happy Golden Years and you need to read it. And also from Farmer Boy – remember how when Almanzo’s parents go traveling for a week and the kids use up a whole barrel of sugar in their cooking? And stick the pig’s teeth together with taffy? :)
Oooh, I’m always wondering about how they made the maple syrup candy in the snow! When I was a kid I tried to pour maple syrup on snow… and it didn’t exactly work. Haha. I love this thread!
That honor would go to Laurie from Little Women. Though I was terribly confused as to why he was given a girl’s name, and terribly upset that he didn’t end up with Jo (my favorite Little Woman).
Coincidentally, Laurie was played by Christian Bale in the 1994 movie, and Christian Bale also played the role of my first movie crush– Jack from Newsies! Yes, I adored him, despite his horrendous fake New York accent.
You and me, two peas in a pod
I can still sing every Newsies song
Dude, I still have all the dance choreography memorized from Newsies too! *sigh* love it!
I have never heard of Newsies! It came out in ’92, so I was in college. Maybe I was too caught up in my stupid boyfriend to pay attention. So it’s worth me watching?
“Is it worth watching?” she says. Clearly it’s worth watching and then obsessing over for the next 20 years. :)
If you’re a fan of musicals (and forgiving of awkward young teenage acting a la the early Harry Potter films), it’s a fun movie, though admittedly not an Oscar contender. As a kid who cut her cinematic teeth on musicals, it was in heavy rotation at my house. I drove my mom nuts with it.
My other first movie crushes were from musicals, too– Frank from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Gene Kelley. Sigh.
Ok, I missed the Newsies boat somehow (I don’t know how, I was 9 at the time). And then all my friends made me watch it in college and I did. not. get it.
Definitely loved Laurie and Manly. Farmers Boy was my favorite book by far, but I was mainly a tomboy who wanted to live with horses desperately.
Mr. Darcy, of course. I was baptized young into classic lit (I distinctly remember having my mom read us The Hobbit before bed in this huge gorgeously illustrated book…) and Pride and Prejudice was always amazing. Especially because Mr. Darcy was so smart and didn’t take shit.
And along those same lines, Rhett Butler! Gone With The Wind is such an amazing book and even before seeing the fantastic Cary Grant play him, the tension between the characters and how much I wanted to smack Scarlett made it amazing.
I read Pride and Prejudice years ago, but that’s another one that didn’t stick. I need to reread–especially because I am dying to watch the movies again.
Mr Darcy is my all time adult book crush. Predictable, but true.
The best screen Mr Darcy is Colin Firth in the BBC series. The wet shirt scene. Not in the book and arguably gratuitous, but… I could watch that over and over!
Oh yes, Jules, you definitely need to reread. For sure. Breathtakingly awesome!
I was thinking of Rhett also – I’ve read that book so many times – and it was Clark Gable in the movie. (Cary probably wasn’t enough of a bad boy for the part. :) )
D’oh! Clark Gable, of course. Why do I always get them confused? I have no idea… >.<
Too funny. I just brought home my Anne of Green Gables books from my parents’ house so I could read them this fall/winter and I’ve been working my way back through the Rose Wilder books which feature a whole lot of Manly in them :) Now I’ll need to reread the Laura books too!
Great minds think alike! :)
Anne of Green Gables remains to this day my favorite book. I loved the entire series so much that I read every single book by L.M. Montgomery. Because of this my first book crush was on Barney Snaith a character from her book “The Blue Castle.” He was mysterious yet kind, loved the heroine like crazy, and even saved her from being run over by a train! Be still my heart!
I have a feeling I’m going to read everything by L.M. Montgomery, too. I remember loving the Emily trilogy. I can’t wait to reread that one.
Yep. I totally recognized his pic when it came up in my feed reader! :)
Who can forget a face like that! Those eyes!
Can you imagine what he would say if he knew that a hundred years later strange women were swooning? Ha! I love that this story was so real!
One of the main reasons I wanted to have a child was so that I could share my favorite books with them. I had almost forgotten about the “Little House” series(!), and now that I have a boy I may or may not be able to convince him to read along with me. I’m still going to purchase the series. Selfishly.
You know, I was thinking the same thing today. Then, I decided too damn bad–they’re reading them with me. ;) I’ll make it up to them by reading The Lord of The Rings, too.
My son is fascinated by the Little House books, and I think Mikey will be too, especially with his love of history.
Start with Farmer Boy if you’re not sure, maybe? Barney still has popcorn and milk for breakfast (not a typical English combination at all) after trying the glass of popcorn, glass of milk experiment we read about Almanzo combining.
Oh, my HUSBAND still talks about parts of Farmer Boy that stuck in his brain. Boys can definitely benefit!
Don’t forget when Almanzo and Cap Garland went out to find the seed wheat!
I’ve done quite a bit of research on Rose Wilder Lane, and she certainly thought her dad was amazing and wonderful!
As a child, I was obsessed with books about ballet. As a result, I had a crush on several male ballet dancers…several GAY male ballet dancers. Classic.
Oh, what a fabulous discussion. Yes to Manly (yum! and 10 years older! too bad about the paralysis in his twenties!), and Gilbert, and Laurie. I will (somewhat embarrassedly) admit that I began reading Johanna Lindsey romance novels around the age of 12 (what was my mother thinking??) and thus Fabio (always on the cover, in various modes of dress and hair colors) became my teenage crush.
(Its a day for parentheses.)
Your last paragraph about Manly’s looks cracked me up! Not a troll indeed… And yeah, he might have been my first book-crush too. He was even kind of age appropriate in Farmer Boy.
Oh my gosh that last line nearly killed me with laughter! I will proudly say that I reread all the Anne of Green Gables every summer through high school. And then again most recently last summer. I also read all of the following books – L.M. Montgomery wrote… seven, I think? They come in a set and since my original copies of the first three were hand-me-downs when I was seven, I thought it best to get a brand new set for my baby daughter. I also reread all of the Laura Ingalls books last year. Sigh. Sigh sigh sigh. Seriously, all of it is magical.
In Kindergarten library hour my classmates were looking at “Hop on Pop” while I was reading Little House books. To young for crushes! My older daughters read these books in elementary school, and this summer I made sure my 10-year-old read Little House in the Big Woods. She was enthralled and looks forward to more. One of her comments was “now I know how they did so many things.”
Surely Cap Garland was Laura’s first love, but Almonzo Wilder wooed and won her and Cap died young. Laura lived from 1867 to 1957 which is an awesome amount of change… from cooking over an open fire to the invention of microwave cooking.
I remain amused by the lack of any mention at all of the “convenience” in the original books! This level of refinement is long past. [convenience = outhouse]
Hey, you know what? You’re right! There is no mention whatsoever about outhouses or indoor plumbing! I guess everyone has their line in the sand, and for Laura Ingalls Wilder, it was the digestive system.
Incredibly Victorian – when you know she was a farm girl – not one hint of ANYTHING! It is interesting also to note the changes in the religious traditions she describes from the time of her father’s father until her childhood.
See, I don’t remember any of these fine points. I need to reread the series, and I’m going to do it with the boys. I think they’ll get a kick out of it. Honestly, they just like it that I read to them. They’d probably be fine if I read them want-ads.
I think I’m a little late to the game, but Laurie from “Little Women” was my first book crush… and the first one to break my heart. I read “Little Women” when I was in the third grade, and I distinctly remembering hiding in my closet absolutely sobbing when Laurie chose awful Amy. (Confession: I still have a hard time with women named Amy. :)) He broke my heart, so Tom from “An Old-Fashioned Girl” quickly took his place.