A great companion book to the little house books

A great companion book for readers of the LH books and/or Laura biographies. I picked it up to look through with my 6 year old since I’m reading the LH books to her. I ended up reading it myself in one sitting. Very useful for helping to visualize the places particulars, with photos of the homesteads & maps of the towns.

If you love the "Little House" series, and you have a hankering to visit the places where Wilders and Ingallses once trod, this is the essential guide. I have used it to find Walnut Grove, MN and those very banks of the Plum Creek. It even includes some places not mentioned in the novels, like Burr Oak, IA, where the Ingalls family ran an inn for awhile. A worthwhile investment for any wannabe 21st century prairie girl (or guy).

Good book. A must read if you are a Wilder fan.

An invaluable guide to the real places behind the Little House books, this book is perfect to share with children who are currently immersed in the series. Though older, the book is painstakingly photographed and all the images are accompanied by quotations from the books or from Laura's other writings. Large black and white and color photographs of house interiors, Pa's fiddle, family members, and sweeps of prairie are interspersed with the beloved Garth Williams illustrations. A fascinating photographic experience from cover to cover.

A really nice random collection of Wilder things. Loved discovering new facts and artifacts related to Laura Ingalls Wilder. Anderson has done so much to help preserve Wilder's legacy as well as helping her legacy be accessible to the public.

This is an excellent book for fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder. It is full of photos of the family and of family items and family friends which is very nice to read about and see. It also has photos of places that the Ingalls lived throughout Laura's growing up and lifetime. It is mostly a photo book (which is great) but it does have text giving a biography lesson as well. Very well worth the money to have on hand to refer to as you read Laura's books or 'think' about her. You can grab this book and learn about each family member and who they were

I saw this book in the library and got captivated right away by the pictures. It did take me awhile to read this book, but that's not because it wasn't good. Quite the opposite! I am such a huge LIW, Little House fan, that I did not want this book to end. I thoroughly digested every page by pouring over the pictures and history behind all the destinations you can visit with anything Little House related. If you can't visit all the Little House museums yourself or if you've ever missed any, this book will give you a good picture of what the landscape is like.

This book was first published in Japan in 1988 after a Japanese translator expressed his interest in Laura Ingalls Wilder to William Anderson. Anderson then recruited Leslie Kelly for the photography. The majority of the pictures were done by Kelly unless they are noted in the back such as the museums' archived photos. There is a variety of full length pictures that take up both pages along with smaller ones and headshots of the family.

This is not just a coffee table book of pictures though. Each picture has a lengthy caption, and there is a chapter for each location with a page or two with history of the family's travels. I was happily surprised by the extensive history listed. I decided to shelve this under reference since you could easily flip open this book to check, for example, what years did the Ingalls live in Burr Oak or how long were the Wilders in Florida? There were even a couple of Laura's poems copied next to some of Kelly's photos to give you a better feel of the land with Laura's voice to help. I forgot she was quite the poet too.

If you are a diehard LIW fan or just starting to research her life, this book would be a great place to start. I learned some more information myself and was reminded of facts I had forgotten. Laura did go to school in Pepin, Wisconsin at four years old (she never wrote about it). In Independence, Kansas, the Ingalls cabin is gone but you can see the well Pa built and historians think they found the foundation of Mr. Edwards's cabin nearby. There are even pictures of places that used to stand back in the mid 1900s but are no longer there such as Pa's store in De Smet (this was torn down) and the Wilder home in Spring Valley, Minnesota where Laura, Almanzo, and Rose lived in 1890 (this house was demolished too).

I recommend reading all of her Little House books, and then stopping to read the first chapter on Pepin Wisconsin after you read Little House in the Big Woods, the next chapter on Independence Kansas after Little House on the Prairie, and so forth as you read through the series. This will help you distinguish the exact facts and dates as Laura did change some details for the books which makes them historical fiction rather than nonfiction. There is also a chapter on Rose and a chapter on the Wilders. Since Anderson did such a great job, I may need to buy a copy for myself!

Recommend for- Fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder and the history of pioneers

Anyone who loves the Little House books would enjoy this short biography lavishly illustrated with maps and photographs of all the places Laura and her family lived, including pictures of their things as mentioned in the books — Pa’s fiddle, Ma’s china shepherdess, the whatnot, etc.

This helped me understand The Wilder Life better. Seeing the pictures of the places where Laura Ingalls Wilder really lived just really hit home how different the picture in our heads is. And it's funny because it's really not Wilder's descriptions of the places that is incorrect, or our imaginations...it's the absolutely charming illustrations of Garth Williams. By lining up actual pictures with Wilder's text and a few of Williams' illustrations you get that sense of let down. The illustrations created pictures that real life could never live up to!

Just bought this, but now that I'm looking at it, I think I may already have a copy.....

Super cool if you enjoyed the Little House books!