Little House on the Prairie books have been beloved by both children and adults alike since they were first released in the 1930's.This book contains 21 word search puzzles based on the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Unlike other puzzle books that are usually thrown away when finished, this work is meant as a guide to the Little House books to keep and refer back to.Contains information about each of the Little House books as well as interesting information about the Ingalls family, the places where Laura lived, and the television series.Complete list of all the Ingalls - Wilder museums and homes with contact information on how to visit.Puzzles suitable for all ages. Parents may choose to read the entries about the Little House books to their children, as they are written on a young adult reading level.Each puzzle was created by the author by re-reading the entire set of Little House books and pulling out words that showed the basic theme of each story.Puzzles and descriptions based on each of the following Laura Ingalls Wilder books:- Little House in the Big Woods- Farmer Boy- Little House on the Prairie- On the Banks of Plum Creek- By the Shores of Silver Lake- The Long Winter- Little Town on the Prairie- These Happy Golden Years- The First Four Years- On the Way Home- West From HomeGregory White has been studying Laura Ingalls Wilder for over 35 years.Excerpt:I was able to take a charter bus with Evelyn and a group of about fifteen others (mostly adults) to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home in Mansfield, Missouri. The experience of visiting Rocky Ridge Farm is probably why I still enjoy museums to this day. It wasn’t the souvenirs in the gift shop that interested me - it was being able to walk across the same floors as Laura and Almanzo, to look out of the same windows of their house and see the views they saw, and to actually lay eyes on the desk where she wrote the Little House books. For someone wanting to become a writer when he grew up, it showed me a connection between a real person and a place, and the world she created to share with the entire world through writing. - Gregory White How this book began over 30 years ago .... excerpt from the introduction of Little House Search: I was ten years old back in 1977 when a guest speaker came to my elementary school to speak about Laura Ingalls Wilder and the life of the pioneers. She was Evelyn Thurman, a librarian (later, a Professor) at the Margie Helm Library at Western Kentucky University. At the time, I had no idea that Laura was a real person, a writer. To me, I saw her (Melissa Gilbert, that is) every week on television on NBC's Little House on the Prairie.   I had been writing stories since the age of nine. When her speech was over, I approached Evelyn and told her I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. She gave me a copy of her book, The Canary Who Wants to Talk , and invited me to come visit her at the library.   My father was on staff at Western Kentucky University at the time. During the summer months I rode to work with him and he dropped me off at the library where I would spend my days as Evelyn's unofficial assistant (which went on for about five years). She encouraged my writing, taught me the value of research, and helped me to self-publish my first book, The China Doll, in 1981. In 1983, Evelyn asked me to work with her on an idea she had for a new book. Her other "Laura" book was titled The Ingalls - Wilder Homesites , a diary and tour of all the places she had visited (and revisited) where Laura had lived. Now, she wanted to write a short description of each homesite and have me create a word search puzzle that went along with it. It was titled, Little Houses on the Prairie With Search and Find the Word Puzzles . Evelyn placed the book for sale in all of the Laura Ingalls Wilder museums.   It stayed in print for many years. I am sorry that Evelyn Thurman never got see the way that the independent publishing world has taken off and gained new respect. She was from a time when all self-published works were known as "vanity works" or "vanity publishing." Miss Thurman hated that term, by the way. Sadly, she passed away in 2005 at the age of 84. While most of her works have gone out of print, she is remembered by all who knew her. Western Kentucky University created the Evelyn Thurman Young Readers Book Award , which is given to outstanding Kentucky authors and illustrators of children's literature.   This book is not a reprint of the word search book that Evelyn and I created. Rather, it is a reimagining of it - a homage to that original work in remembrance of it. To create the word search puzzles, I re-read every book written by Laura Ingalls Wilder, pulling out words that helped give the story its overall theme. I created Little House Search in honor of the woman who believed I could be a writer. I am.   Gregory Lee White