This was just awful. No emotional resonance, long on boring details and short on actual story, and I hope she wasn't trying to sound like Wilder, because: no.

Cynthia Rylant is amazing! She took us very carefully into the missing years of the Little House years and tenderly showed us why Laura Ingalls Wilder couldn’t share these experiences in the Little House series. We laughed and cried as we read this aloud. It is a treasure not to be missed in the beloved series.

I liked the book. The style is close to Laura Ingalls Wilders' style and I enjoyed getting a few more details from this period of Laura's life that was excluded from her books.

Old Town in th Green Groves fill in part of the gab between two of the classic little house books: "On the Banks of Plum Creek" and "By the Shores of Silver Lake".

As I have read the later books and also read about Laura other places I already knew parts of what had to happen in this book but that didn't take the joy of reading it away from me.
I was a little disapointed when the book didn't close the gab completely. We didn't get to hear about (spoiler from "By the Shores of Silver Lake") the family coming down with the sickness that made Mary blind. But the book still gave me something I felt I could relate to the stories Laura wrote about herself.

It was writen almost in the style of Laura herself. A couple of times there was a frase where I couldn't help thinking that Laura would have put it differntly but overall it fits the mood of the beloves series. What helped me was just to forget that Laura didn't write it and just treat it as I would any other Laura-book.

What also makes this book a little differnt that the real series is the fact that what happens is more serious. I would have liked the book to have focused a little more on these things, even if it meant moving a bit away from the original series.

I would probably give this book 3,5 stars if I could, but since I can't I decided to round up in sted of down as I usually would because I simply feel sad taking stars away from Laura-books.
I recomend this book to any fan of the little house books. If you feel like it would be a waste of time to read this since it obviously is a childrens book (and in my oppinion more so than the original series), I would just say to you: read it anyway. It is so short it will be done in no time and you will know a little more about dear Laura.

A delightful book! Although not written by Laura Ingalls Wilder, it is written in her style and covers the family's life between "Plum Creek" and "Silver Lake". I am very glad I became aware of this book and would definitely recommend it for lovers of "Little House books".

I swear I started reading this one when I was really into the little house books. However, I got bogged down and don't know if I finished it or not. Gack. This is what happens when one reads so many books. I can't always remember reading a book or not.

This book covers the lost years between By the Banks of Plum Creek and By the Shores of Silver Lake. It is presumably the basis of the stories of the Ingalls’ city life as seen on the TV version. Similar to the stories of Laura Ingalls Wilder, this story by Cynthia Rylant is so well done it’s too bad the book isn’t longer.

Very much like the original books Ms Rylant did a fantastic job creating the story from Ms Wilder's scant notes on this stage of her life.

It has been YEARS since I read this book, but I remember adoring it. I grew up with Laura and this book while somewhat sad, was still a favorite of mine.

Not written by Laura herself, but still average for a Little House book. I enjoyed reading about the baby & the many moves they made.

870L

I was very pleased to find out that this book reads almost just like the ones by Laura, and it fills in the years she left out (especially the story of her brother who died). I recommend this to all fans of the original LHOTP series of books.