Prairie Tales written by Melissa Gilbert

 May I introduce to you our favorite American sweetheart, Half-Pint! Also known as, Melissa Gilbert, who played the famous pioneer author, Laura Ingalls Wilder, in the hit TV series Little House on the Prairie. That’s right, Melissa Gilbert, the girl in the braided pigtails who we saw growing up in front of our eyes on Little House on the Prairie wrote her own memoir, Prairie Tales.

In her memoir, Melissa Gilbert talks about her life growing up playing Laura Ingalls Wilder in the hit TV show Little House on the Prairie and her life as a recovering drug addict and an alcoholic.

         Melissa Gilbert was adopted into the Gilbert family when she was a baby and became an American TV icon in the classic TV series Little House on the Prairie. During her earlier years, Melissa’s parents went through a divorce. After that tragedy, her father died when she was eleven - years old. Since Melissa had a lot of family members in the Hollywood industry (intermediate and extended), she did do some acting gigs before Little House. The first time Melissa Gilbert appeared on TV was for a Dean Martin Christmas special. While Melissa was playing Laura on Little House, she was also in movies, such as, the remake of The Miracle Worker. Melissa played Helen Keller along side Patty Duke as Ms. Anne Sullivan. It is interesting to note that Patty Duke played Helen Keller in the original The Miracle Worker movie. Another movie that Melissa starred in was The Diary of Anne Frank as the young Anne Frank.

The first Little House fact that I bet you did not know was that Melissa Gilbert had a sibling in Little House. Remember mean Willie Oleson, Nellie Oleson’s little brother and henchman? That’s Jonathan Gilbert, Melissa’s little brother whom was also adopted. Jonathan and Melissa were from different biological families when they were adopted into the Gilbert family.

The second Little House fact that I bet you would never assume is this: remember the ten-year-old girl who Laura and Almanzo Wilder adopted from Almanzo’s dying brother in season nine? Shannen Doherty played that ten-year old girl. (I didn’t see Melissa mentioning Shannen’s character’s name, unless I somehow overlooked it). Ten years later after filming Little House, Shannen Doherty did have a one-night stand with Melissa’s first husband, Bo Brinkman. Oh the shame of it all!

 Melissa Gilbert tells everything in her memoir, events that happened on and off the set of Little House, her dating life, and life when she became a mother. Also, another life that Melissa mentions in her memoir was being an alcoholic and a drug addict. I know, it is sad to think that our little Half-Pint has gotten into some trouble with drugs. Thankfully, Melissa Gilbert did overcome her drug struggles and eventually became the president of The Screen Actors Guild Board.

Over all if you were a Little House on the Prairie fan, especially a Laura Ingalls Wilder/Half-Pint fan, I would highly recommend you to read Prairie Tales. Why? It’s all about Half-Pint’s life that we never knew underneath those iconic braided pigtails in Little House on the Prairie.

Trivia Questions:

1)    How old was Melissa when she tried alcohol?

2)    Who told Melissa Gilbert that she would be playing Laura Ingalls? (Fun Fact: the person who told her later played a schoolteacher in Little House).

            3) When Melissa first got pregnant, who was going to be the baby daddy? What happened to the baby?

Gilbert, Melissa . Prairie Tales . New York, NY: Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2009. Print.