A CHILDHOOD IN THE WOODS

A Childhood in the Woods is Mary Bratman’s joyful description of her family and childhood in a small one-room log cabin in the untamed forests of Northern Wisconsin. In 1961, a twelve-year-old boy handed his grandmother a mimeographed letter from his sixth-grade teacher. The letter requested information about the childhoods of class members’ parents and grandparents. The boy’s grandmother, Mary Bratman, took her grandson’s request to heart and wrote an eloquent description of her experience growing up in the wilderness of Wisconsin at the turn of the century. Mary’s grandson, Roger Neumaier, saved his grandmother’s description of her childhood. Six decades later, her response is published in this book along with simple illustrations intended to assist younger people in visualizing the wonderful images his grandmother created.The book is a brilliant and child-friendly description of a pioneer child’s life in the wilds of Wisconsin. Her words offer a wonderful reminder of the daily life of Americans at a simpler time in our history.