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Laura Ingalls Wilder
Stories and phrases from the books of this headstrong, independent pioneer girl resound through my life as strongly as if they were my own memories. She once said the reason she wrote her books was to help today's children to understand how much America had changed during her lifetime, and she succeeded remarkably -- I know how to churn butter, make a haystack, sew a buttonhole, build a wattle-and-daub chimney for a log cabin, all because of Laura Ingalls.