Laddie

Laddie is told by "Little Sister", the youngest child of a "Stanton" family of 12 children, and centers around her experiences as the older ones grow up, fall in love and marry. Little Sister loves being outside more than anything – except her big brother Laddie, her hero and favorite sibling. Laddie's and Little Sister's mother and father love each other and their children with all their hearts and who love God most of all. Their main Christian precept is that God is Love and they show their love to their family, their friends, their neighbors, and even the strangers who come to live and resist becoming part of the community. Laddie is considered Stratton-Porter's autobiographical novel. The title character is modeled after author's deceased older brother, Leander, whom Stratton-Porter nicknamed Laddie. As in Stratton-Porter's own family, Laddie is connected with the land and identifies with their father's vocation of farming.

Gene Stratton-Porter (1863-1924) was a Wabash County, Indiana, native who became a self-trained American author, nature photographer, and naturalist. Stratton-Porter wrote several best-selling novels in addition to columns for national magazines. Her best known novels Freckles, A Girl of the Limberlost, and The Harvester are set in the wooded wetlands and swamps of northeast Indiana. Stratton-Porter loved the area and its wildlife and had documented them extensively.