COMING TO AMERICA.

COMING TO AMERICA. Annalisa read the Little House books a number of times as a child, and I gave her the new Library of America edition for Christmas. The books include stories about events in Walnut Grove, Minnesota. Deborah Friedell began her review of the book in the TLS (November 22) with a story about Walnut Grove as it is today. Here is an article which gives the basis for Friedell’s story from Mark Steil on Minnesota Public Radio (July 28, 2004). The article is about Harry Yang, a Hmong refugee from Viet Nam who emigrated to the United States with his family in 1980. By 2001 Yang had bought a house in St. Paul, Minnesota, but he wanted to leave St. Paul because of gangs and crime. His daughter suggested Walnut Grove, Minnesota, where her favorite television show, The Little House on the Prairie, was set. She told him “it would be a good place to raise children because the characters on the show seemed nice.” By 2004 there were 25 Hmong families among the 600 residents of Walnut Creek.