Confessions Of A Prairie Bitch written by Alison Arngrim

“Laura Ingalls!” Oh remember those high-pitched words coming from a girl with curly blonde hair, wearing nice dresses, and being mean to her classmates in a small town called Walnut Grove? I’m talking about Nellie Olson from the hit TV show, Little House on the Prairie, the girl who everyone loved to hate. 

         Alison Argrim was the little girl underneath the blonde curly wig of meanness acting as Nellie Olson! She wrote the book Confessions Of A Prairie Bitch, describing her life growing up in a family of actors (her mother were the voices for Casper the Friendly Ghost and Gumby) to auditioning and getting the part of Nellie Oleson, and to her life growing up on the Little House set, and after when she left the show.

         Not giving too much of the book away, I will say that Alison did experience trauma in her life growing up before acting as Nellie Oleson. Her older brother, who was an actor at one point, sexually abused her for three years and she didn’t tell anyone until she became an adult!

         I loved watching Little House on the Prairie on TV when I was young. If you were like me, I know you will enjoy reading Confessions Of A Prairie Bitch because who would not want to know what happened behind the scenes of a once hit TV show?

*** This book does contain inappropriate language, some sexually graphic scenes, drug use, and minor talk about HIV/AIDS in this book is not recommended for readers under the age of 12***
Trivia Questions: 1) Instead of having a cat or a dog as a traditional first pet for a child, what was Alison’s first pet? 2) Who was Alison’s best friend on the set of Little House on the Prairie? 3) According to Alison, Nellie Olson is based on three girls who the real Laura Ingalls Wilder knew, who were those three girls that portrayed Nellie Olson in the Little House on the Prairie book series?

Bonus Question: There is a word in the book that is misspelled! What word is misspelled?

Fun Fact: Laura Ingalls Wilder changed the real Nellie Olson’s name because she didn’t want to write about someone that was unpleasant to be around; therefore Nellie Olson is a fictional character that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote in her books. 

 Arngrim, Alison. Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: how I survived Nellie Oleson and learned to love being hated. New York, NY: IT , 2011. Print.
I want to put citations in my blogs to show credit to the author(s) and editor(s) who published the book. The description above are my words.