Caddie Woodlawn

If you like Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder, you will love Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink.  I read and reread Wilder’s Little House books as a child, but hadn’t read Caddie Woodlawn until a few years ago.  I wish I had read it as a girl!

Caddie is really Caroline Augusta.  She was a sickly child, and when her family moved to Wisconsin from Boston, her father asked her mother if he could ‘have’ Caddie and let her run with her brothers.  Her mother agreed – so Caddie was allowed to run outside with her brothers.  Caddie Woodlawn tells the joys, trials, and triumphs of life in rural Wisconsin during the American Civil War.

Caddie tries, unsuccessfully, to repair a clock, she rides to warn her Indian friends about a pending attack from the white settlers, she berry-picks with her brothers, and almost gets struck by lightning on the way home from school.   She’s glad, most of the time, she doesn’t have to sit inside with her sisters, learning to be a ‘proper lady,’ but sometimes she longs for her mother’s approval.

Children age five and up will enjoy listening to this book.  If you’re looking for an audio book to enjoy when traveling, Caddie Woodlawn would entertain your whole family.