In "The Prodigies," Nelson Mackenzie tells the Massey children that his children enjoy The Swiss Family Robinson. Both Alexandra Bergson and Jim Burden read this book aloud to their families; Jim "felt that the Swiss family had no advantages over us in the way of an adventurous life." "The story was much loved by all the Cather children" (My Antonia Scholarly Edition, note 73).
In an 1897 Home Monthly article Cather writes: "If I were asked what two books were the most essential to a child's library and most important in his education, I should name two very old-fashioned ones that their fathers and mothers read and loved before them: Pilgrim's Progress and The Swiss Family Robinson."