I enjoyed listening to this engagingly narrated and enchanting story. (I won’t recap my thoughts on the story; you can read my review of the print version here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)

Listening to the audio version after reading the book reinforced the story for me and many scenes definitely stood out more. Additionally, language differences also stood out more when heard instead of read. One instance is the family’s use of be (as in “Be you sick, Almanzo?”) instead of the conjugations of to be that we use today. Another was the pronunciation of giddap; this was the first time I had heard it pronounced that way. I had read it as the more common and familiar giddyup so of course it sounded funny when I heard it. Both of these examples led me to believe that the Wilders were more formal than their counterparts, the Ingalls. It’s another small but noteworthy point of comparison when learning about Almanzo’s childhood versus Laura’s.

I have a hard time with audio books, I find myself tuning out and daydreaming when I should be listening, but I will try the others in the Little House series. Cherry Jones is easy and enjoyable to listen to; you can’t help but want to listen to her read more of the story.

Listened to ¾ of this in January, and now, two months later, finished it today, also in the car. And pretty much loved it. This is not about Laura's family, though it’s technically listed #3 IN the Little House on the Prairie series. It functions as a kind of contrast in that it is a wealthier farm life experience in New England vs. the Midwestern farm life Laura lived, seemingly near starvation. This book is about her future' husband Almanzo Wilder's family.

As with Laura’s family, she describes with practically ethnographic detail what nineteenth-century American farm life was like: Gathering potatoes, cutting up ice, making and selling butter. Kids work on these farms, they learn how to do things, they develop humane relationships with animals (and each other). And when they are done working, they then have seemingly breathless fun together. They make sleds, they make harnesses, they hook them up to a team of horses, and they learn how to trot these horses safely. When they are CHILDREN.

Can anyone imagine a holiday more joyful than Laura Ingalls Wilder describes each and every Christmas??!! But Laura one year gets a PENNY for Christmas; Almanzo gets, in addition to a lot of other things, a KNIFE!?

The food they grow and eat is also a contrast to Laura’s farm life, with sumptuous and meticulously described meals, like a certain ham dinner. And there’s another contrasting story; at one point Almanzo’s mother and father leave for a few days. Some work gets done by the kids, but they use up all the sugar making ice cream, they eat cake and ice cream and watermelon to the point of making themselves sick, they do some property damage, and so on. Amusing.

In the end, Almanzo is given the opportunity to sell bales of hay in town. He is TEN years old. And when he is given the opportunity to apprentice as a wheelwright (look it up, and in a DICTIONARY, kids, that was good enough for me, it’ll be good enough for you, you don’t need google . . ), well, you know from the title what he chooses to do. Great to listen to, especially with the incomparable Cherry Jones reading!

Lovely. I don’t remember reading this one as a kid. I think I skipped it because it was about a boy. Silly young Kate. It was wonderful, because of course it was...

There are times when I think this is my favorite of the series. I really love this book. There's so much good food in it - and so much good family - and it's such a different world, and that's compelling - Father being proud enough of his horses where he refused to leave home a minute earlier than he had to, he was so sure they'd get him there in time, Alice confessing to eating almost all the sugar, Almanzo answering his parents' question about his future by asking about a horse -

(And maybe Laura didn't end up hating her sister-in-law in the end, if she could write such a nice thing about her here? That patch is one of the highlights of this book!)

There's a lot to appreciate as an adult, too. There's this amazing throwaway line about a debate on the Fourth of July: "Then two men made long political speeches. One believed in high tariffs, and one believed in free trade." I admit it: I laaaaughed. And there's a sort of ringing patriotism that feels both historical and ahistorical at the same time - I'm sure it's true, and goodness, it leaves out a lot:

"And don't forget it was axes and plows that made this country... We were farmers, son; we wanted the land. It was farmers that went over the mountains, and cleared the land, and settled it, and farmed it, and hung on to their farms.

"This country goes three thousand miles west, now. It goes 'way out beyond Kansas, and beyond the Great American Desert, over mountains bigger than these mountains, and down to the Pacific Ocean. It's the biggest country in the world, and it was farmers who took all that country and made it America, son. Don't you ever forget that."

It's a little frightening to think that this well-to-do family also had to abandon their farm and move west. A little less frightening to remember how Almanzo shows up a few years from now: lazing in the sun on top of a giant bale of hay, giving Laura directions.

He's a great kid.

I want to like this book more than I did. Found it slow and really childish at times. It was missing something, but what I don't really know. It does however tell such a realistic story of the time being and therefor is a good representation of the time.



This book is in the 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up challenge I am doing.

Found this to be an equally charming book in the series, even though it wasn't about Laura and her family. This one is about her future husband Almanzo's childhood and I found it engaging ans as fascinating as the rest. I've got the whole series in a box set but try to space them put and not finish the whole series to quickly. They are just a cozy comfort read for me

I loved these farm stories told from 9-year-old Almanzo's point of view. I don't think I read this book when I was young, but it was delightful to read it as an adult.

My father grew up on a farm, and I inherited his pride in what farmers have accomplished. I liked this quote, spoken by Almanzo's father:

"A farmer depends on himself, and the land and the weather. If you're a farmer, you raise what you eat, you raise what you wear, and you keep warm with wood out of your own timber. You work hard, but you work as you please, and no man can tell you to go or come. You'll be free and independent, son, on a farm."

Oh man, it was so amazing to read this book again. I love this whole series so so much. And it made it even better than my daughter loved it too. On to Little House in the Big Woods!

This one makes me think my kids don't do enough chores around the house!
My review: n  Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wildern.

And another review: Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Much wailing and gnashing of teeth this morning as we finished Farmer Boy. My student could not believe it was over! Going to be hard to top this one in the coming months. Not sure how many times I have read this but I am thinking five.
I believe after Little House in the Big Woods, it is the best book in the Little House series.

Goodbye, Almanzo. Not sure when we will meet again.

This one and Little House on the Prairie will forever be some of my favorite childhood stories. It tells of such a realistic story, but with such a beautifully innocent touch that I think really complemented the setting and made the story unforgettable.

I loved looking into Almanza’s childhood. Reading about how so many things are built, grown, harvested and stores were so interesting!!! I also enjoyed watching him grow into his own, and the ending was the icing on the cake.