On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Change of pace. I found this on the give-away table in the hall upstairs. Somehow when I see a book that I loved lying in such a place, I just have to take it. (Explains my three copies of Mistress Masham's Repose). I really didn't intend to sit down and read it, but it was the old edition with the Garth Williams illustrations, so I flipped through it. Next thing I knew I had read from the middle to the end - so it seemed only logical to go back to the beginning and read up to where I began.

I've always been charmed by the way that Laura grows up in the series - not just the character, but the vocabulary and sentence structure and general tone of the stories. In this one she goes from seven to eight with Mary a year ahead and Carrie a toddler. Before Baby Grace, and before Mary becomes blind.

I'm glad I still like them.