Read it again, but alas, my kids are getting too old for it. They complain it's lame and "cringe". Sigh. Gone are the days they loved the same stories as me. Camping is coming up. I'll have to find something more exciting to read to them.


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Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder is an exquisite set of books that I cherished growing up. Read until they were dog-eared, this series has to be one of my childhood favorites. A story about a young girl growing up on the frontier, it was so popular they made it into a T.V. series even though the series didn't do it justice. Stories as a young girl I could relate to, the mean girl in town, fights with my sisters, and just the struggles of everyday life of any family. The love Ma and Pa had for each other showed through so much so, that even today I can still see Caroline's eye's sparkling bright blue as Pa whirled her around the dance floor. This series is a perfect example of a story well told. When you're there in Laura's life so much that you can feel her fear when in trouble, or you can taste the penny candy on Christmas, that's a story. I have no doubt this will be a children's classic for years to come. I highly recommend it.

Note: Reading again with my son, what a joy to see him loving these too! We've even started watching the tv series along with the reading!

ClassicsDefined.com

This is book #4 in the series. It can be read on its own, but there is much to be gained by knowing what Pa and Ma and Mary and Laura and baby Carrie have experienced. For instance, the first book has them in the dense forests of Wisconsin in the last quarter of the 19th century. A lot of their extended family live nearby. In Little House on the Prairie, they leave Wisconsin and journey alone into Missouri and, finally, Kansas.

In this volume, having left Kansas for Minnesota, they have traded their horses and wagon for a dugout home and acres of land on the banks of Plum Creek.

This is another kind of “wilderness.” Not one with bears roaming the dense forest or with Indians roaming the plains. Pa has (as all pioneers should have) an enormous skill set that allows him to dig wells, trap and skin game, plant crops and build barns and houses. As one season melds into the next we see all these skills being put to use. Ma’s skills are just as important and Mary and Laura are certainly expected to help with caring for the livestock, cleaning and taking care of the baby. Ma is always busy with cooking, preserving, mending, milking, churning, creating clothes and doing Pa’s chores as well when he is away.

Yet what comes through so clearly is that they have created a “home” and have a deep sense of “family.” And, most of all, it is a good life despite the snow storms, prairie fires, crop failures and marauding wild animals. Some refer to it as a simpler time, but it is clear that everyone is busy from morning to night and the opportunities for formal education are often too far away to be available. Church going and Sunday school augment the at home bible reading (one of the few books to travel with this family).

Our soon-to-be six year old had no trouble understanding that Laura loved her little rag doll (her only doll) and what its loss might mean. She also wanted to discuss how special the opportunity for candy at Christmas was and how one of the children they met was allowed to be “mean” and “selfish.”

From an adult’s point of view, the story moves along at a good pace and provides interesting details about what life on the rim of conventional civilization was like; what was important to these people; and, how Pa’s playing the fiddle at night could make a tough day infinitely better.

#lerlauraingallswilder

In this book Laura is living in Minnesota in a dugout type of house-literally a hole underground. And strange thing -mild winters whoda thought?
She lives here about five years, but her Pa just cannot get much to grow; the land is just not fertile. They are very close to town though, within walking distance.

A charming read for children; I remember portions of this book even decades later. As a result, I’m going to stick with my rating even though as an adult I can see issues in the behaviour of the parents.

Side note - I didn’t realise how much of a spendthrift Pa actually was - going into debt to build a fancy house. Rushing into the purchase at Plum Creek without much due diligence. I was shaking my adult head even though children wouldn’t really pick this up. I am choosing to see this as the author realising the bravado in his words and giving us enough that we could see this.

This book also made me want to read about the actual history happening during the time. The grasshoppers and destruction of farmland during that period was a significant event in the state based on google research which is fascinating (https://lithub.com/laura-ingalls-wild...).

The Ingalls family has come to Minnesota after leaving Indian country when they learned that they had been given false information about being allowed to settle there--this chronology is a big fictionalized, since IRL they returned back to where they came from for a time before heading to Minnesota, but the basics of all of this are from their real lives.

They start off living in a dugout that Pa trades for, near a creek, where Mary and Laura go to a school and an actual church for the first time; this is the book where we meet the colourful mean girl, Nellie Oleson (a composite character based on at least two girls Laura knew growing up) and the family has new, unexpected challenges.

This is one of my favourite books in this series, and I enjoyed rereading it. It's also the first time I've read it silently without one of my daughters either by my side or lying in bed a bedtime.

Reread January 5, 2017.

Ma says in this book, "There is nothing in the world so good as good neighbors." I always was, as a kid, and am still now, fascinated by the Ingalls' neighbors. There is Norwegian Mr. Nelson in this one and the kindly, wildcat from Tennessee, Mr. Edwards, who brings the girls their Christmas gifts in "Little House on the Prairie." They interest me, partly because neighbors were so necessary, so needed, for well digging (Mr. Scott), helping to build houses and stables, to help your wife save the haystacks from prairie fires... but also we never hear their stories about going west or even if they survive their homestead attempts. We can only wonder and guess.

still loved it!

A welcome relief after the drudgery of "Farmer Boy". The girls and I raced through this one in comparison! They both were excited to read it daily, and we'd often do several chapters at a time. At the end of the book tonight, we realized the last chapter is the THIRD Christmas in the book! (Molly likes the second Christmas the best with all the unexpected presents, I like the third with no presents except Pa safe and sound, everyone warm at home through the winter storm and the prospect of wheat next summer). Sad times when the freaking grasshoppers ruin life two summers in a row.

Lots of fun stuff, like living in the dugout the first year, Laura almost drowning, the crab and the prank Laura pulled on snobby town-girl Nellie Oleson, the trouble on the haystack, starting school and going to church... and what was probably most devastating for the girls - when that little Anna took Laura's doll Charlotte (from the first book) and ruined her.
I think I still like "Little House in the Big Woods" best. Still irks me that they ever left that home near grandparents. Pa and his traveling spirit.

Thank goodness for Ma, she's the underappreciated hero of these stories!

Everyone else can go away this is a Charles and Caroline romance. Good gosh they’re the cutest.

Book 5 of “loving my inner child.” I think I may need a break from these books. Today when I added honey to my tea I thought “my! this is nice, good honey that Pa got for us.” Except that I’ve never in my life called anyone Pa and also the honey was not fine or good but entirely crystallized. Four stars.