Maria D. Wilkes

Meet Caroline Quiner......the little girl who would grow up to be Laura Ingalls Wilder's mother. Caroline and her family are leaving the little town of Brookfield and moving to a new house in a clearing among the big trees of Concord, Wisconsin. As the Quiners travel through the dense forest, Caroline is excited, but she is also a little bit afraid. Will shelike her new home in Concord as much as her little house in Brookfield? "Little Clearing in the Woods" is the third book in an ongoing series about the adventures of another girl from America's favorite pioneer family

Spirit of the Western Frontier: Meet Caroline Quiner, the little girl who would grow up to be Laura Ingalls Wilder's mother. Little House in Brookfield marks the launch of an on-going series about the adventures of Caroline Quiner, who would grow up to be Ma Ingalls in the Little House books. Written in the classic tradition of the Little House and the Rocky Ridge books, and based on diaries, letters, and other historical papers, these books offer a glimpse into America's adventurous past, as seen through the eyes of another girl from America's beloved frontier family.

Caroline watches eagerly as buildings spring up overnight and more and more families move into the growing town of Brookfield, Wisconsin. There are all sorts of exciting, new things for Caroline to do! She gets to march in her first Independence Day parade, a circus comes to town, and there are new faces in school almost every week. But Mother keeps saying that she wants to move to a larger farm. Will Caroline have to say good-bye to the little town of Brookfield? The adventures of the little girl who would grow up to be Ma Ingalls in the Little House books continues.

The Little House books have captivated millions of readers with their story of Laura Ingalls, a little pioneer girl growing up on the American frontier. Now travel back to the generation before Laura's and read the story of Caroline Quiner, the little girl who would grow up to be Ma Ingalls in the beloved Little House books. The first three books in the series describe the Quiners' first years without Father and the family's move to a new home deep in the big woods of Concord, Wisconsin. Caroline is nine years old, and she feels settled in her new little house. She's beginning to explore Concord, and is looking forward to going to school, when disaster strikes. It's a cholera epidemic, and it's sweeping the state. It's up to Caroline to help keep her family together and pull them through this terrible time. On Top Of Concord Hill is the fourth book in The Caroline Years, an ongoing series about the adventures of another girl from America's favorite pioneer family. Author Biography: Maria D. Wilkes first read the Little House books as a young girl and has been fascinated by pioneer history ever since. She did extensive research on the Quiner, Ingalls, and Wilder families, studied original sources and family letters and diaries, and worked in close consultation with several historians and the Laura Ingalls Wilder estate as she wrote the Caroline Years books. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, Peter, and her daughters, Grace and Natalie.