Before I hand the reviewing reigns over to Eleanor, I wanted to say a couple things I took out of this book. (Hopefully she doesn't get too impatient.)

There's a lot in the Laura Ingalls Wilder books written for adults as well as kids. The theme of self-reliance comes through loud and clear. The difference in child-rearing... wow. Hold on:

Me: Eleanor, what does it mean to "speak when spoken to?"

E: It means, "BE QUIET UNTIL YOU ARE SPOKEN TO!!!"

Me: Do you think we should make that a rule in our house?

E: What if I need dessert?

Me: Well, you couldn't ask for it. So, should it be a rule?

E: ...I don't know...

Me: What do you think?

E: Well... if we have a question, we speak. So I don't know about that rule, dad.

Me: You mean you don't like it?

E: No...

That's exactly what I thought. Although, I'd like to add she's been sitting here very patiently waiting to review the book. She hasn't complained or said a word, and it's late. (She was kind of grumpy earlier...)

Me: Weren't you Eleanor.

E: Yeah.


Anyway (me again), like I said, there was a lot in there for grown-ups that is applicable to today.

They were at the fair, and father saw some Belgian horses:

"Father said they were Belgians. They came from a country called Belgium, in Europe. ...Father admired them very much.
'Look at that muscle! They'd pull a barn, if hitched to it.'
Almanzo asked him: 'What's the good of a horse that can pull a barn? We don't want to pull a barn. A Morgan has muscle enough to pull a wagon, and he's fast enough to pull a buggy, too!'
'You're right, son!' Father said. He looked regretfully at the big horses, and shook his head. 'It would be a waste to feed all that muscle, and we've got no use for it. You're right.'"

How apropos for today. For myself. For my country. How often have I looked at something I don't need? Something that has no practical purpose? Even Almanzo's father - the faultless, the diligent - he's even tempted at times.

Eleanor's doing such a good job of waiting for her turn. I'm not sure how to reward her. I've got one more story to tell about her before I let her write her part of the review.

Here's what I wrote down when it happened:

It is shocking, SHOCKING how much Eleanor remembers. We've been reading this book for months and months. I don't sit down and read her a chapter a night, it happens much more sporadically than that. She ALWAYS remembers what chapter we're on. Here's how it went down:

E: What's chapter 22 called?

Me: The Fall of the Year.

E: But I thought chapter 10 was called "The Turn of the Year."

Me: (I'm shocked that she remembered this, as it had been months since we read it.) What was chapter 10 about?

E: Almanzo not going to school.

So, I went back to check, and sure enough she was right. I got up, and told my wife what happened, and she was surprised too. She asked how many chapters Eleanor remembered, and I said, "I don't know." So I asked her. She went chapter 1-3 and at 4 she stopped.

E: I don't want to tell anymore.

(She was getting bored, exasperated, or just plain wanted to stop. Maybe she didn't know any more.)

Me: You don't remember?

E: I do. I just don't want to tell.

Me: (teasing) No, you don't.

E: I do.

Me: ...We'll play the WOO! WOO! WOO! game if you tell. (The WOO! WOO! WOO! game includes me throwing her into the air. ...We don't play that one as much anymore.)

E: OK! Chapter 4- Surprise. Chapter 5-Birthday. Chapter 6-Filling the Ice House. Chapter 7- Saturday Night...

She did all the way up to chapter 22 - which was the chapter we were on at the time. We'd never gone back to practice. It seems crazy to me. Seriously crazy.

Of course, there are times I send her upstairs to tell her mother something and she'll come back down and ask, "What was I supposed to tell?"

Anyway. Sorry for the long story. I know it's a review. I just had to get that story down somewhere.

THE ELEANOR REVIEW

Me: You already told me 5 stars, so why don't you tell me what the book was about. Or tell me your favorite part.

E: I liked when Almanzo was going to get Starlight.

Me: Who is Starlight?

E: A baby colt. And when he's four, Almanzo's gonna start to "gentle" him.

Me: What's "gentle him" mean?

E: I think it means "make him gentle." How do we "gentle" a colt?

Me: I don't know. What other parts did you like?

E: I also liked that he went to the county fair and that his PUMPKIN GOT A RIBBON!!!

Me: I liked that part too.

E: Why didn't it say about Royal's pets?

Me: I think because this book was mainly about Almanzo.

E: I feel like I could write a book when I grow up. I could write a book about Meeeeee... And Gwennieeeeee... And my kids. And you, when you were a little boy, and mom when she was a little girl.

Me: I think you would be very good at writing stories. What else do you want to say about the book? There was a lot in this one, right?

E: You want to take some out?

Me: I don't want to take anything out of the book.

E: Yeah. There was a lot, but it was all good. In chapter one, they went out for recess. I liked when they went out for recess. When did Star and Bright show up?

Me: I don't remember when Star and Bright showed up.

E: You aren't Almanzo.

Me: What do you mean?

E: You're typing. And Almanzo can't type. He's a little kid.

Me: Do you want to know what my favorite part is?

E: What's your favorite part? Tell us!



Me: My favorite part was the part with the teacher at the beginning. And how he dealt with those kids. The mean kids.

E: What does "dealt" mean?

Me: How he handled them. How did he handle the mean kids?

E: He WHIPPED them! HE WHIPPED EVERYBODY!!!!

Me: Well... he didn't whip everybody, just the bad kids. What were kids names that he whipped?

E: Big Bill. John.

Me: Yeah. That part was crazy. Would your teacher whip you if you were bad?

E: Mm-hmmm. Only, I'm not bad. I'm nice to her.

Me: I don't think your teacher would whip you even if you were bad. But that doesn't mean I think you should be bad, right?

E: Right.



Me: Do you want to say anything else about the book? Any other favorite parts?

E: Well, one more. In CHAPTER 2 they ate a Yuuuuummmmmyyyy dinner, called HAM. Which I love, and we have. Read the review now.

Me: Ok. Here it is.

Could this series get any more charming? This books is pure nostalgia, warm hugs, cozy blankets, hot chocolate, quiet evenings by a fire, just all the things that bring me joy.

Continuing my re-read of the Little House books, I was shocked to discover that my copy of this one is also sans cover, as I really didn't have a memory of much that happened. I remembered Star and Bright, and Manley's siblings, but that was about it. It makes an interesting contrast between his upbringing and Laura's much poorer and much more Puritan background.
It's also a good reminder of how much hard farm work will allow you to eat :) I also appreciated that he wasn't good, good, good, and had a mischievous streak that his parents appreciated.

Upon finishing Little House on the Prairie the kids and I were dying to know where the Ingalls' adventures would take them next but discovered that the next in the series focuses on Almanzo Wilder, Laura's future husband. We were immediately taken in by the descriptions of late 1800's farm life in upper New York State. We were struck in particular by the richness Almanzo's family enjoyed in comparison with the Ingalls who seemed to be moving all the time. One of my favorite features of this book is the lengthy descriptions of Almanzo's mother's cooking. That boy ate more donuts and pie than would be good for anyone not doing the the number of chores he was!

Are you hungry yet?

Much of Laura's childhood was spent in near-starvation. While they always had something to eat, it was never enough for the family to be satisfied.

Thus when Laura wrote about Almanzo (her future husband)'s childhood, she focused on the most idyllic parts and what she wanted for her own childhood and her child - which was a full stomach and stable home.

n  Almanzo simply ate. He ate ham and chicken and turkey, and dressing and cranberry jelly; he ate potatoes and gravy, succotash, baked beans and boiled beans and onions, and white bread and rye ’n’ injun bread, and sweet pickles and jam and preserves. Then he drew a long breath, and he ate pie.n

I swear, my stomach rumbled every ten minutes!

After a book of this, I began searching for a cookbook (and luckily, there are books aplenty based on this series: The Little House Cookbook, My Little House Cookbook - which I cannot wait to try)

Now, the entire plot of Farmer Boy did not solely revolve around food - we also get a look into farm life from the perspective of a wealthy farmer.


Almanzo's father loved farming and did his best to impress that love to his son - with great success!

n   There was no time to lose, no time to waste in rest or play. The life of the earth comes up with a rush in the springtime n

Reading as Almanzo completed farm chores and tamed his oxen kindled my brief (but fervent) desire to become a farmer in fifth grade (well, until the impracticality of city-life ruined that dream!)

That being said, not even Almanzo' s cushy childhood was left untouched by the harshness of living in the late 1800s.

n   If the teacher has to thrash you again, Royal, I’ll give you a thrashing you’ll remember.n

There was one crazy scene where their teacher cracked a whip around the school room due to some seriously rowdy teens (could you imagine the look on the PTA Mom's faces?)

While this one was not as endearing nor as thoughtful as Laura's other novels, I certainly enjoyed reading it. This was fun way to learn about life a hundred years ago.

Audiobook Comments
Read by Cherry Jones and accompanied by Paul Woodiel on the fiddle. Love this audiobook.

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The way to a man's soul is through his stomach...especially if that man is a nine-year-old farmer boy. Omigoodness, I don't think I've ever read a book with so. much. food. in it! Clearly food is Almanzo's love language.

I like Almanzo quite a lot. Laura hadn't met him at this age, but she evidently knew him all the same, albeit retroactively. She's drawn us a realistic and entirely sympathetic boy, and her creation is a delight.

Cherry Jones's excellent narration continues.

There is an astonishing amount of food eaten in this book. I've always enjoyed it for that reason.

#3 Farmer Boy - August 2011

I listened to Farmer Boy for the most part, only read a chapter or two in the middle on my own. I enjoy the book so much more read by Cherry Jones rather than my own voice in my brain. She makes me feel so cozy and I'm swept back in time. I don't think I ever read Farmer Boy when I was young, only the books starring Laura. I can't believe how hard Almanzo had to work at such a young age. And he enjoyed the work! And I really can't believe how much he ate! So much food! I enjoyed reading about the boys and men working on the farm, but now I'd really like to read about the girls and women. How were they able to make so much delicious food every single day?! I am grateful for the grocery store, but these books make me wish for the skills (and time) to grow and raise more of my own food and cook such delicious meals. Or, let's be honest, I want someone else to cook such delicious meals for me!

I love how every chapter reads like a complete story. My favorite part from the whole book is the story in "Keeping House" where Almanzo makes a black smudge on the parlor wall which mysteriously disappeared. A tear squeezed out of my eye when Eliza Jane revealed she had patched the spot.

As usual, as I finish a Laura Ingalls Wilder book, I'm wishing for some of the simple things (manners, respect, work ethic, independence, gratitude) that have been lost in our day. I teach my kids manners and respect etc., but nothing like these parents taught their kids. Sure, I don't whip them with a switch either, and I don't want my kids to be afraid of me, but I feel like society has gone too far in the opposite direction. Analyzing my own parenting goals now . . .

Sometimes you read a book for you about is a kid and cringe about it even while reveling in the nostalgia. That was not my experience with this book. I loved this book as a kid. I love this book as an adult. The writing is crisp, clear, and compelling. She foreshadows major events (often by many chapters), introducing important details that grow in significance. Lessons of family, community, self, and so many other things are just as relevant today as they were to the original readers.

I am so glad my mom read me this book as a kid. And I’m glad that audible had a sale that encouraged me to buy it and read it again.

So for me personally and as an older adult who never did encounter Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie series as a child and in fact only managed to read Farmer Boy just recently (and which contents recount the 19th century New York State boyhood of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s husband Almanzo), what I have found very much interesting and enlightening has been to notice and realise how in Farmer Boy much more advanced with regard to farming in general the Wilder family in 19th century New York State is when compared with and to the Ingalls family (at pretty well the same time period) farming or at least trying to farm as pioneers in areas that are still virgin prairie so to speak and thus need to be cleared and where it is often if not generally fortunate if families have one or at the most two pigs for butchering (and usually just for home consumption, not ever really for selling at market).

For while in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s memoirs of her own childhood, farming life on a homestead, trying to grow wheat etc. on very recently cleared and plowed land is an almost constant struggle with many potential calamities, including grasshopper infestations, drought, fire and the like, in Farmer Boy, Laura Ingalls Wilder clearly shows and demonstrates that her husband’s boyhood as the youngest son of an obviously wealthy, successful and above all well established farmer is considerably, is much less stressful, and that yes indeed, even when the weather plays potential havoc, actual crop failures seem much less of a potential reality in a relatively developed area like New York State which no longer is considered newly claimed and in contrast to the Ingalls struggling with their homesteads on the Minnesota and later on the Dakota prairies, where if things go wrong there is often no way to fall back on previous successes and that while Almanzo Wilder might well be a farmer’s son, he also obviously and from the details presented in Farmer Boy is not really a pioneer lad like Laura Ingalls Wilder during her own childhood could be considered a pioneer girl.

A fun and engaging tale of a 19th century successful and generally well-to-do rural family is Farmer Boy, but I do think that I tend to find Almanzo Wilder’s depicted childhood not quite as engaging and as interesting as when Laura Ingalls Wilder writes about her own family and how often difficult, stressful and harsh life as a pioneer on a recently forged out of the land homestead is (or more to the point generally was) during so-called pioneer times (for as interesting as Farmer Boy has been as a personal reading experience, it is textually and in my opinion not really a tale of pioneer farming and life).

DNF @ 30%

My first DNF of the year. I can see why I loved these as a kid, but my lord, I can't with this rose-tinted "biography" anymore.

5+ stars (7/10 hearts). Honestly, this was never my favourite as a kid, somehow? I think Almanzo bothered me because I considered him whiny, badly-tempered, and disobedient (don’t throw any stones! I’m honestly unsure where I got that confused impression of his attitude). Upon this reread, I actually hugely enjoyed the book.

I’m not a farmer and I don’t think I’d want to be a farmer, but I’m fascinated and delighted by the picture of life on a bustling, independent farm in the 1860s. Enough to consider becoming self-sufficient? No, but enough to be inspired to do some gardening, which is a huge concession for me. I’m awed by the dedication, strength, and work ethic of this family that gets up before five, sleeps in cold bedrooms, walks 2 miles to school every day, and spends hours in manual labour. Mother and Father are some pretty amazing parents, even if one or two of their methods is a little farfetched for me, and I love the good parental relationships, even if the sibling relationships are a liiiittle lacking.

I love all the primary information, but of course the most iconic part of this book is the FOOD. This book makes me so so hungry and has me craving so many specific foods, like apple pie and sausage. Ugh. Amazing. Honestly, it’s a great read for all ages.