I really enjoyed this; it included some events in the life of the Ingalls family that I knew about but which never entered the Little House series. Some parts made me cry!

Rylant does a nice job of capturing Wilder's gentle but enthusiastic descriptions of pioneer life and family life. This is much better than other Little House spin-offs I've read!

I will admit that I was left disappointed by this book. I found the writing to be a little choppy, slow in places, and hard to get into. At times it felt like I was reading a script. It got a little better in the middle but then went downhill again. I had a very hard time even finishing it, which is saying a lot since it is so short. I however did enjoy getting to read more about Laura. The nostalgia that it brought me was the only thing that made me give it anything more than one star...

That scene where the doctor's wife requested to buy Laura from her family was incredibly heavy. Poor Laura stood there terrified while waiting politely to hear if her Ma would give her up. I was in suspense and I've read the later books and knew it didn't happen.

This book is based on a couple of pages written by Laura Ingalls Wilder but never published. The story takes place between 1875-77, in a small town in Iowa called Burr Oak. According to the Foreward, Laura said Burr Oak was a lovely place and she had many nice times there, but I somehow got the idea that this isn't true. They had lost the farm on Plum Creek due to two years of grasshopper infestation. Not able to make a living there, Pa sold the farm, breaking Laura's heart; she had a deep love for the prairie and I think, like Charles, wasn't happy living in a town. Once in Burr Oak, the family lived and worked in a hotel and while one never reads any real negative comments in an Ingalls Wilder book, it seemed Caroline and the girls were overworked there. Plus the owner's sons were brats and caused no small amount of trouble for the girls. Plus there was a saloon in the hotel and Charles saw enough misery there to finally move the family into an apartment over a grocery store. By the end of the book the family is finally on the move again, now to the shores of Silver Lake.
The author, Cynthia Rylant, got into the cadence of Laura's writing pretty well and only a few times did I feel Ms. Rylant's presence. If you are a fan of the books, I would put this one between On the Banks of Plum Creek and By the Shores of Silver Lake. If you've never read it or even heard of it (I just discovered it the other day, 50 years after reading the originals) and I enjoyed it. If you are gifting a child these books for the first time, do include Old Town in the Green Groves. It might not come in the box sets, so seek it out. It's worth it.

Wish I had read this before a visit to Burr Oak a few years ago, but I enjoyed Rylant’s telling of the story, and am glad to have had the gap filled in in this way. Today’s writing for children is not quite as fearful of addressing scary or sad or distressing subjects as it was when Laura wrote. I felt Rylant’s effort was a worthy one on all counts.

Cynthia Rylant has done a fine job of imagining Laura Ingalls' life between her books The Banks of Plum Creek and The Shores of Silver Lake, a 2-year period of time missing from the Little House on the Prairie series. Rylant uses as much primary source material as is available - not much - and wonderfully fills in the rest with her imagination. During this period of time, the Ingalls family endured several moves, another grasshopper invasion, flooding rains, the birth of a baby who only lived for a few months (Charles Frederick), other times of difficult illness, and the birth of another baby who was healthy (Grace). They helped to run a hotel in an older, larger town called Burr Oak, Iowa, before finally moving back west to the claim at Silver Lake.
Cynthia Rylant is an excellent author who is able to put herself into the shoes of an historical figure and recreate not just events, but also character, thoughts, attitudes, and speech patterns of the Ingalls family.

This is a beautiful book. I love hearing the in-between stories of the Ingalls family, and especially Laura's take on everything. Some parts are sad, others joyful, but they always stick together as a family and enjoy all the blessings God provides. They work hard and have fun. I get a kick out of Pa, because he in so many ways reminds me of my husband. These men are always loving their wives and kids, and thinking, thinking, making plans in their brains that they put together so well and then finally surprise the family with and begin acting upon, making dreams come true!

I love all the Little House books, so I finally got around to reading this account of the "lost years". I thought Rylant did a good job keeping with the tone of the original stories and I really enjoyed getting another peek into Laura's life.

Very much done in the style of Laura Ingalls Wilder. It is a fun read if you are, like me, a Luara fan.

Enjoyed this book which was written to fill a void of Laura Ingalls Wilder's writing. When she lived in Green Groves, they lived and worked in a hotel and then in a store. Very different from living in their own house on the prarie or in the woods. Was a good read.

I thought that evan if the author was not lura wilder, Cynthia Rylant cought her thoughts beautifully.

This book was written by Cynthia Rylant, based on the only two years of Laura Ingalls Wilder's childhood that she herself did not write about. Apparently Laura had about 12 pages of unpublished text which Rylant supplemented with interviews and research.
I could easily see why Laura did not write about this time - in two years she almost lost her Ma to illness, her family lost the farm to grasshoppers (again), her baby brother was born and later died, she had the measles, and she moved three times.
Although this book was good for me to read (in just two hours) to fill the hole in my needing to know everything about the Ingalls family, the story lacked Laura's own gift for colorful, descriptive text, emotions behind the history, and detailed engagement with the story. The dialogue seemed flat and merely reporting each event quickly without much embellishment to create a fluid story.
This book won't take you much time if you want to learn the rest of the story of Laura and is enjoyable - but you won't immerse yourself in the life of her family the way you might have in the rest of the original series.