more books for Sinema

These are some books I enjoyed as a child that feature girls as the main characters. They are children's books, but if you enjoy reading about LGs then I think you'll enjoy these. All should be readily available from online bookstores (or well-stocked bookstores in the USA, although I gather that you're not in the USA...) All descriptions rely upon my memory only... I haven't read most of these in years, and may be a little foggy on the details...

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and the 7 subsequent books in the series. Mid 1800s. Follow Laura from age 5 in the "big woods" of Minnesota, through the tween years "on the banks of plum creek" and the early adolescent years "by the shores of silver lake," to becoming a school-teacher in a one-room schoolhouse at age 15, and accepting her beau's offer of marriage at age 16.

Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink. Mid 1800s - Civil War era in the American West. 11-year-old Caddie despises the hoopskirts she must wear... inherited her father's talent for "tinkering" and fixing broken clocks... notes the differences between the whites of her community, and the Indian tribes living nearby, and is sensitive to the plight of the half-breed children who attend her school... this girl has spunk, and plenty of it.

Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry. "present day" USA. 10 year old Anastasia lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts... her father is an English professor at Harvard... she has a HUGE crush on the (junior-high aged?) black boy with the huge afro, who she has heard singing songs about "One-Ball Reilly..."

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh. MUST READ!!! "present day" USA (well, 60s USA, really... but when I read it, it seemed like present day). 11-year-old Harriet is an only child of affluent parents in Manhattan, and an aspiring writer, and writes in her journal constantly. She goes on "expeditions" after school, and makes notes on the world and people around her, including her classmates. But when her classmates get ahold of her journal, they alienate her and take revenge. Also the sequel, The Long Secret, about Harriet's classmate, Beth Ellen.

Scatterbrain, can't remember author. What a shame, I can't find references to this book online, must be out of print & forgotten. Mid 1800s USA. A young girl (age 11? her name might be Cassie?) embarks on a journey. She is the child of poor parents living in a completely remote area of Kansas, and her mother is about to give birth again. Her mother is in very frail health, and won't be able to nurse the baby. The family's most valuable possesion, a milk cow, is the only hope for the baby's survival. Scatterbrained Cassie leaves the cow untethered, and the cow wanders away. Mother is about to go into labor... and Father gives Cassie orders to go out, and either find the cow or another means of sustaining the baby who is on the way. Cassie ventures out on her own, into wild Witchita, among the cattle ranchers, looking for her family's milk cow... (I haven't read this book in 20 years, yet it sticks in my mind so prominently... maybe in the dusty piles at a flea market or used book store?)

Hope you get this message before your trip back to Outer Mongolia... more where these came from, just ask when you return to Girl Chat...