Wendy McClure – författare

Catch a ferry to the 1904 World''s Fair with the orphans of Wanderville! The orphans of Wanderville have decided to never again let themselves be confused by adults offering them shiny red apples and warm beds. They’re going to make their way to California and establish a more permanent spot for Wanderville.But when they’re suddenly left without means of transportation, the orphans must find a new way of getting to their “town.” Enter a dandy motorist with a proposition: If the orphans agree to take a mysterious artifact to the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair on his behalf, they will receive a handsome reward that will allow them to book passage west.The citizens of Wanderville conclude that this is their best bet. What they don’t realize, however, is just how treacherous the journey to the fair will be and how much they will need to sacrifice to finally find themselves a new home.

For anyone who has ever wanted to step into the world of a favorite book, here is a pioneer pilgrimage, a tribute to Laura Ingalls Wilder, and a hilarious account of butter-churning obsession. Wendy McClure is on a quest to find the world of beloved Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder-a fantastic realm of fiction, history, and places she''s never been to, yet somehow knows by heart. She retraces the pioneer journey of the Ingalls family- looking for the Big Woods among the medium trees in Wisconsin, wading in Plum Creek, and enduring a prairie hailstorm in South Dakota. She immerses herself in all things Little House, and explores the story from fact to fiction, and from the TV shows to the annual summer pageants in Laura''s hometowns. Whether she''s churning butter in her apartment or sitting in a replica log cabin, McClure is always in pursuit of "the Laura experience." Along the way she comes to understand how Wilder''s life and work have shaped our ideas about girlhood and the American West. The Wilder Life is a loving, irreverent, spirited tribute to a series of books that have inspired generations of American women. It is also an incredibly funny first-person account of obsessive reading, and a story about what happens when we reconnect with our childhood touchstones-and find that our old love has only deepened.

A compendium of ways to capture the pioneer spirit of the classic American author from a Little House on the Prairie expert.In her spirited memoir The Wilder Life, Wendy McClure strapped on her sunbonnet and journeyed into the world of beloved Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder. In Don’t Trade the Baby for a Horse, she shares what she learned from her crash course in “Lauraology,” along with her fiercely rekindled—even deepened—love for the series. McClure found that her encounters with the world of Little House proved instructive; after all, Laura’s world wasn’t all horehound candy and pig-bladder balloons. Somewhere between wandering in the Big Woods and wading through Plum Creek, McClure absorbed many notable lessons in “the Laura experience.” In Don’t Trade the Baby for a Horse, she recommends scores of tips, tricks, and observations gleaned in her pioneer pilgrimage, from the surprising intelligence of muskrats to the wonders of home-churned butter and the fierceness of bustles. Clever, warm and hilarious, Don’t Trade the Baby for a Horse is the definitive guide to living your life on the Wilder side—and essential reading for any fan of the Little House books.

THE FIRST BOOK IN A HISTORICAL SERIES THAT''S PERFECT FOR FANS OF THE BOXCAR CHILDREN!Jack, Frances, and Frances’s younger brother Harold have been ripped from the world they knew in New York and sent to Kansas on an orphan train at the turn of the century. As the train chugs closer and closer to its destination, the children begin to hear terrible rumors about the lives that await them. And so they decide to change their fate the only way they know how. . . .They jump off the train.There, in the middle of the woods, they meet a boy who will transform their lives forever. His name is Alexander, and he tells them they''ve come to a place nobody knows about—especially not adults—and "where all children in need of freedom are accepted." It''s a place called Wanderville, Alexander says, and now Jack, Frances, and Harold are its very first citizens.

Book two in a historically rooted series that''s The Boxcar Children for a new era!When the town sheriff discovers the exact location of “Wanderville,” the orphans who live there—Jack, Frances, Harold, Alexander, and their new friends—must flee their home in the woods. They take to the rails and, after nearly being caught, are rescued by a seemingly kind reverend and his wife. The pair brings the children to their home, telling them that if they help the sharecroppers who run their farm, they will eventually be adopted. But Frances can’t stop thinking about a mysterious treasure mentioned to her by a hobo they met during their travels, and when a young African-American sharecropper is blamed for stealing a fiddle her brother Harold actually nabbed, the citizens of Wanderville will have to decide whether their community is heading in the right direction or whether they need to get their “town” back on track.

A hilarious and sometimes poignant look at the absurdities of weight-loss culture from an appealing and original voice. I''m Not The New Me is about coming to terms with a family heritage of fat and drastic surgeries, and about self-esteem issues that are nobody''s business but your own. It''s wondering what''s left of yourself after you lose weight-and just who the hell you are if you gain it back. It''s about the absurdities of online identities and fat girl clichés, and the sheer terror of appearing live and in person in your very own life.