De-Lurking/LHOTP & Little Women

Hi! I've been lurking in this newsgroup for quite a while, and I decided to
join in the discussion.  Just wanted to say thank you to everyone for a lot of
interesting reading - the discussion here is usually very intelligent and
civilized.  I always enjoy reading the posts of Deborah, Debbie, Wendy (love
Notes from the Windowsill!), Lenona (who has the most interesting and
thought-provoking questions!), Anna, and many others that I can't remember
right now.  Thanks to all of you for a lot of interesting reading.

On to a children's books topic - I've noticed that two of my childhood
favorites, Little Women and Little House on the Prairie, have a remarkable
number of similarities:
- Semi-autobiographical story of 4 sisters
- 2nd to oldest sister is the writer
- 3rd sister is sickly (more pronounced with Beth, but Carrie's weakness is
part of the plot in Little Town on the Prairie)
-youngest sister is spoiled (more pronounced in Amy, but mentioned with Grace
-Author's mother also had a baby boy that died and is not mentioned in teh
books (I'm pretty sure the baby boy isn't mentioned in the books, anyway)
-Both have the general theme of "We may be poor, but with our loving family
we're happier than many rich people"

Has anyone else noticed this, and are there other similarities?
Lisa