This place should be called "Hell Hole", not "Plum Creek". Grasshoppers and blizzards. Another crappy decision by Pa.

This was rather underwhelming for me, especially in comparison to the previous books in this series. It didn't have the same vibe and magical feel, but still, it was enjoyable to continue reading about the characters, and their notable changes. I must say, Pa is rather frustrating, doing things on a whim, with barely no structure or planning ahead.

I do enjoy the Christmasses within these books, though. They are so warm and simple, and it makes me feel like lighting the fire, and getting under a blanket or two. The moments are captured perfectly.

I’m still completely engrossed in this series. For the first time in Laura’s story (not including Farmer Boy since it revolved around Almanzo instead), the show begins to deviate from the books that inspired them. Some of the characters in the book, while still present, differed greatly from their counterparts I have come to know through the show. There was one change I’m incredibly glad that the show made, and that was the substitution of hail for the plague of grasshoppers that hits the Ingalls farm in the book. Those grasshoppers were disturbing and stomach-turning to read about, and I’m incredibly grateful that I didn’t have to see them on the show. However, that plague was morbidly interested to read about, and I couldn’t put the book down because I needed to know what happened and how the family bounced back. While I’ve enjoyed reading about Laura’s life, I’m becoming more and more thankful with every book read that I don’t live during the pioneer age. Their lives were insanely rough, and there was never an end to the hard work required to just continue squeaking by. I’ll take air conditioning and supermarkets over prairie life any day!

I loved the descriptions of life along the creek bank in Minnesota, but now see the privation and days of starvation shining through Laura's eyes. Nellie Oleson is as mean as ever. Continuing to reread the series.

This was my favorite volume of the series in my own childhood, and the first that I read and read many times over, and yet I had blocked out that bit about Laura falling in the creek.

I am struck by the cultural value in the settler class of not being "beholden", even for a penny pencil, and how a specific set of manners functioned as a social marker of "worthiness". The tale of poor Charlotte the Rag Doll exemplifies this. Would Mr. Nelson have done the life-saving woodchopping for Ma and the girls if Laura had not been made to have good manners? And yet they are living badly on brutally conquered and cleared land - cleared by railroad capitalists using them as a vanguard in a different war of conquest. There is a jumble of threads here leading directly to our present political situation - I am thinking of the ideas in Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland by Jonathan M. Metzl and how the tangled roots go back to our unexamined origins.

As with the other volumes, the series is well worth adult reading.

We follow Laura and the Ingalls family who have left the Kansas prairie to arrive at Plum Creek in Minnesota. As they slowly settle into their new home, they all encounter troubles which include a grasshopper blight on their crops, being picked at school and Pa having to leave home to find work before a big blizzard. The family’s story continues to be a emotional engrosser as they move away from their little house. A (100%/Outstanding)

I’ve formed a strange and embarrassing new habit as I’ve made my way through this series.

I'll give you an example as demonstrated in my reading of Plum Creek. Now, little Laura has always been too rambunctious to sit still and learn to read. But, when Ma and Pa settle only two and a half miles from town, she must go to school and finds she's the only student who cannot yet read.

Still with me? 



After much struggle, there's a sweet scene in which, “Laura is able to sound out C-A-T… cat!” It’s a lightbulb moment, and she goes on to read the entire first line of primer words for her surprised and delighted teacher.

At the close of this triumphant scene, out of my mouth… in the rich, warm timbre of pride and joy, came the words, “Well, that’s great!”

This particular phrase is something I’ve never - to my knowledge - said in response to, well... anything.

But I’ve been saying it so often, and with zero irony, at the many wholesome achievements the Ingalls family gets under its collective belt in this story.

Pa brings home a team of horses for Christmas: “Well, that’s great!”

Ma’s vanity cakes are a hit with party guests from town: “Well, that’s great!”

The family members experience a devastating crop loss through no fault of their own, and they grieve it, but they also get right back up to try again: “Well…" (you can fill in the blank).

Reading this book, I've felt akin to my honest-to-goodness 100 year old grandmother, Mary, who’s had every shred of cynicism beaten out of her by long, hard years of living. This woman quite literally has no energy left for listening to bad news, so she only tunes in when there’s a righteous shred of glory at which to rejoice.

What I'm saying is, this series is turning me into my tired, happy grandma, Mary.

And all I can think to say about that is, “Well, that’s great!”


(Mary Morgan, at her 100th birthday celebration last April)

Book/Song Pairing: O-o-h Child (Nina Simone)

In a stellar series, this is one of the best books in the series. I am not sure how many times I have read this but it never grows old.

Found this book in the thrifstore and I knew I had to finish this series. I had started a long time ago. I really enjoyed reading this and seeing how life was in that time. Hardship!

In my continuing re-visit to the Little House Books. I read the 4th book in the series. I really liked this one. This is the book, which takes place after the family moves from Kansas to the west part of Minnesota, where the town of Walnut Grove actually is which is the town in the TV series. Actually, the family, lived here for only about two years or so from what I gather from this book. After reading the previous books, I was thinking possibly not continuing with my re-read, but after this book, I want to continue with it. I know I did not read the entire series, but I think I may have gotten through one or two other books.

Even better than the last book

Good grief, as an adult and as a parent, have I grown too practical to read and completely enjoy these books?

When Ma and Pa packed up the kiddos and left the Big Woods because there were too many people, less land and game to go around, I thought a little bit to myself, Um...Pa, did we think through this completely? Are you sure? Are we safe? But Pa is supposed to be an example of Great American Spirit. So, fine, we let this happen. There were some bumps in the road, but oh boy, we have some major battles for survival in Plum Creek. To the point where I wanted to grab Pa and yell, "Do you see? What can happen? With little research and no family to rely on, this new way of life you're trying out, riding high on the hog after that wheat crop comes through, can do to you? Because there's no wheat, Pa! Only grasshoppers. Listen to those freakin' Norwegians, will you? 'Grasshopper weather' isn't just some cutesy foreign term for, 'Gee, it's warm," it means that zillions of grasshoppers are going to take over the world!!!

"And by the way, Caroline, Pa doesn't always know what's best, so seriously do not let him leave when it might blizzard. Because then he might get caught in it. And be outside for FOUR DAYS with nothing to eat but the children's Christmas candy."

All that yelling aside, this is the reason (not Tolkien) that I want to live in a hill. With a charming creek outside. And I could skip around with my cow and my faithful dog Jack (and not my stick in the mud sister Mary) and hope my crazy, adventure-loving parents don't kill us all. Sorry, I'm yelling again.

Moments I loved: Christmas. Again. It just warms my heart when they have these sweet, simple holidays but are just so truly happy to be together (and alive, cough, Charles). They go to church for one Christmas, and see an actual Christmas tree, and Laura gets a fur cape and muff that blows away Nellie Oleson's.
Ma keeping the family together and strong while Charles is gone, making money to make up for their lost wheat, or when blizzards come through and he's missing. Oh, Ma, you're so tough.
And Pa, when he says to Laura, "We must do the best we can, Laura, and not grumble. What must be done is best done cheerfully." Word, Pa. The next time somebody's bitchin' at me, I'm going to preach some Little House to them.

লিটল হাউজ সিরিজের বই গুলোর মধ্যে অন্য রকম একটা আকর্ষন আছে। পড়া শুরু করলে থামা যায় না। একদমই সহজ সরল সাদা মাটা জীবনের বর্ণনা । কিন্তু লেখিকার লেখার হাত এমন যে মনে হয় সব কিছু চোখের সামনে ঘটছে। পুরো বই এর মাঝেই কেমন জানি কিউট কিউট একটা ভাব আছে। :) আমার ধারণা যে কোন বয়সের যে কেউ এটা পড়তে পারবে। ভালো না লাগার কোন কারণ নাই। আগে সেবার অনুবাদ টা পড়েছিলাম, কিন্তু ওটা এতই ছোট যে অনেক কিছুই বাদ পড়ে গিয়েছিল।