The Last Bookshop In London – by Madeline Martin (2021)

The year is 1939, and Grace Bennett is finally able to leave the small community she grew up in, and move to the city of London with her friend Viv. They live with an old family friend, and look for jobs. Grace finds work at the Primrose Hill bookshop. She hasn’t been much of a reader up to that point, but as time goes by, she begins to catch the joy of books. Mr. Evans, the elderly shop owner, is grumpy at first, but soon he and Grace are re-organizing the shop and business begins to increase.

But things are about to change drastically. Grace is shocked when Hitler starts bombing the city of London.

On The Banks Of Plum Creek – by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1937)

When most people hear the name Laura Ingalls Wilder, they think of the television show “Little House On The Prairie”, which ran from 1974 to 1983. While it was a clean family show for all ages, it offered a rather idealized version of what life was like back in the 1800s. A much more accurate description is offered in the author’s books. Although all of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books are technically classified as biographical fiction, the events in the books did indeed happen.

This book covers 1874-1876, the years that Laura’s family lived outside the town of Walnut Creek, Minnesota. Her father bought land along Plum Creek from a Norwegian man named Mr. Hanson, who wanted to move farther west. It seemed like the perfect place to Pa Ingalls. The prairie soil was rich, and there were no trees that needed to be removed before planting wheat. It was within walking distance of town, so Laura and her older sister Mary could attend school for the first time.