The article made me realize that as a kid, I never realized that I was reading such a unique account of this hugely developmental stage in America’s history. As a children’s series, the Little House on the Prairie books offer children around the world, including Americans, some of their first insights into America and its history.

If Laura Ingalls is one of the world’s inlets to American culture, let’s hazard a guess as to where young Americans first encounter Francophone culture, shall we?

Today there is the children’s program Caillou (although I imagine that most don’t realize that he is French Canadian), and I’m sure we all remember Babar, but I would still wager that a significant number of American children’s first encounter with French culture comes from the images in books and cartoons about Madeline: the precocious little coquine who attends a boarding school in Paris, dashing around the Eiffel Tower and getting herself and her friends into all sorts of curious situations right under the nose of her pauvre maitresse.  Mine certainly was.

Imagine my shock, then, when I first arrived to teach English in France and found that next to none of the teachers or children in my schools, nor my new French friends, had ever even heard of Madeline!  However, every last one of my elementary classes, from CP level up to CM2 mentioned a cowboy as one of the things they pictured when they thought about America, which, might I add (because I think it’s adorable), many still believed to be located in England.

Both of these images that American and French children have of each other may be slightly outdated – the traditional cowboy dates back to the 19th century and Madeline was originally written in the 1930s – but the value in each remains.  Both series offer young cultural explorers brave, spunky, female characters who march out into the world with every intent of conquering it, regardless of the ferocious tigers, debilitating illnesses, or treacherous terrain that get in their way.  Sure, they both get into some trouble as they go, but who ever became a role model without a few mistakes and bruises along the way?

What’s important about these characters and their stories is not that they are French, or American, but that they have reached and inspired vast audiences of both, as well as many others.  These characters teach readers to be independent and adventurous; to explore new places and meet new people.  For me, Laura and Madeline were big influences. I didn’t admire their personalities because I was consciously thinking that they had specifically positive traits; I imitated them because I was fascinated by the characters and wanted to be like them.  It is to them that I credit my gypsy spirit and my fascination with global Francophone culture.

*Original French article: http://www.rue89.com/rue69/2011/08/27/la-petite-maison-dans-la-prairie-feministe-et-subversive-218758

English translation: http://watchingamerica.com/News/119983/little-house-on-the-prairie-feminist-and-subversive/

By Jenny