That's a football field, she pointed out. Her husband paced it off at 100 steps - 300 feet wide. Wide enough, in fact, so either horse and driver could make a U-turn.īut she was still surprised at how wide the street was. Park knew that streets in Dakota railway towns were wide enough for two-way horse-and-wagon traffic.

While working on the book, Park visited De Smet, South Dakota, where Wilder lived and where her later novels were set. The girl 'already knew from living in California that most white people didn't like having neighbors who weren't white themselves.' Hanna, 14, and her widowed white father arrive in Dakota Territory, where he hopes to open a dress goods store. Park's new novel for middle grade readers (approximately 10 to 12 years old), is her attempt to reconcile her love for Wilder's books with her criticism of their shortcomings. Someone who wasn't white,' writes Park, who is Korean American, in the author's note to 'Prairie Lotus' (Clarion Books). Someone with black hair and dark eyes and tan skin. 'Ultimately it meant that she would never have allowed Laura to become friends with someone like me. Like countless American girls, Linda Sue Park devoured the 'Little House' novels of Wisconsin native Laura Ingalls Wilder, re-reading them and imagining herself in the stories as a friend of young Laura.īut as she grew up, Park was troubled by the way those stories treated people of color, in particular Ma's hatred of Native Americans.

Linda sue park prairie lotus