Prairie Lotus

Use these links to supplement and complement students’ reading of the work and to increase their overall enjoyment of literature. Challenge them to discern parallel themes, engage through visual and aural stimuli, and delve deeper into the thematic possibilities presented by the title.

Recommended Texts for Pairing

Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

• Please note: Readers should view events, attitudes, language, and behaviors through the lens of history. Utilize critical reading skills; examples of intolerance and racism exist.
• Linda Sue Park, author of Prairie Lotus, writes in her Author’s Note that LaForge is modeled after DeSmet, the Dakota territory town that is the setting of Little Town on the Prairie. Be sure to read the Author’s Note to better understand the connection.
• Little Town on the Prairie is the seventh in the Little House series of autobiographical books about young Laura growing up in the settlement days of the American Midwest.
• Laura completes her schooling like Hanna and Bess; shared themes include Persistence as a Pathway to Success and Recognizing One’s Own Evolving Identity.
• Little Town on the Prairie on SuperSummary

“Wish” by Linda Sue Park

• a poem about interpreting and internalizing the value of poetry and poetic language
• shares the novel’s theme of Persistence as a Pathway to Success
• Readers can find novel passages with imagery and poetic sound devices and consider them in conjunction with the speaker’s goals in the poem.