Little Town on the Prairie by laura ingalls wilder

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

কাহিনীর এই অংশে এসে মূল চরিত্র লরার বয়স যেন কিছুতেই বাড়াবেন না বলে প্রতিজ্ঞা করেছেন লেখিকা। যদিও বইয়ের লরা আর লেখিকা দুজন একই চরিত্র। তবুও কেন যেন এই পনেরো বছর বয়সে এসে লরার বয়স আটকে যাওয়াটা বেখাপ্পা লাগলো। এছাড়া বাকি সব ভালোই লেগেছে। বিশেষ করে, অবশেষে আলমানযোর সাথে লরার দেখা হওয়াটা।

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Mara2463

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

The same as with the previous part: I really enjoyed it, but less than the first parts of the series.

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VMPrecoma

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

I didn't remember that this book was so good! The drama in it though! I was just dying, it was too much. I loved every bit of it though. But man is Nellie a pain. Also, I just realized on this reread that Laura got a teaching license at 15. Fifteen!! What have I been doing all this time, I could've been a teacher by now lol. The guy literally tested her for like half an hour and was like, yep, you're good, lemme just write you out a certificate, and bam! She's a certified teacher. It's so crazy how different times were back then.

Anyways, I can't wait to start the next book!

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monicacampanella

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

I flew through this one, maybe because I was so happy not to be stuck in a blizzard anymore, freezing and starving. Things are really looking up for the Ingalls family--they get a kitten, Mary finally goes off to college, there are parties in town, and by the end of the book, Laura gets her teaching certificate. The most extravagant thing is when Pa allows Laura to buy name cards (they're the latest thing and cost 25 cents!). I actually squealed, "Oh, Pa! Letting Laura buy name cards!", eliciting an eyeroll from my husband. Laura always works so hard and tries to be so good, so it's nice to see the little rewards.

There are a couple of moments that make you stop and think as an adult. One, Pa and some buddies in town put on a show wearing blackface, which is pretty cringeworthy. Two, as much as we all love Laura, you start to wonder about how Laura writes about herself--is she this good? That whole thing with Nellie and Miss Wilder kind of makes you wonder who really is the petty person.

Another thing, I love Almanzo as he begins to court Laura (maybe I squealed more). But as Ma exclaims, Laura's only 15! And Almanzo's 10 years older. I know at the time that was fine, but you could say the same for blackface. Of course, Laura doesn't marry him until she's 18, so I guess that makes it less creepy? Also making it less creepy, Laura's maturity--she even helps Ma and Pa get the money to send Mary to college. Making it creepy again--Laura's innocence. She can't figure out why Almanzo wants to walk her home after the church revival. We see more of their slow courtship in the next book (more squeal-worthy moments).

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PrincesaLuminosa

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

I feel like my favorites in this series were Little House on the Prairie and Farmer Boy. I liked the others, but they simply couldn't match up to those two.

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Baharuka

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

About two years ago I started rereading the Little House books. It started as a whim after visiting Minnesota and driving by one of the places where Laura Ingalls used to live. I had read these books with my mother when I was a child, and I grew up with the popular TV show based on the series, so there was a hefty dose of nostalgia whenever I reread one of the books.

Now that nostalgia has become even more powerful, because book seven, Little Town on the Prairie, was the first one that I read aloud to my mother. My mom suffers from brain cancer and has trouble communicating, but she was so delighted to hear these stories again! She smiled and laughed, and enjoyed looking at the illustrations of life on the prairie.

Little Town takes place in De Smet, South Dakota, when Laura was 15. She wants to study hard so she can earn a teacher's certificate and help pay for her blind sister, Mary, to go to college. Laura gets her first taste of adulthood when she gets a job working as a seamstress in town, and she also gets attention from a young man named Almanzo Wilder. The stories are mostly sweet and charming, with the exception of mean Nellie Oleson and a bad teacher. Luckily Pa and Ma always have some wisdom and comfort to give.

Overall this was a joy to read, and I was happy to again share this story with my mother.

Favorite Quote
"This earthly life is a battle," said Ma. "If it isn't one thing to contend with it's another. It has always been so, and it always will be. The sooner you make up your mind to that, the better off you are, and the more thankful for your pleasures."

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yakinsidekayak

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

I wanted to like it, I really did. But reading as an adult is very different to reading as a child. The innocence is stripped away, and we now read with the benefit of experience and education.

Unlike many children's classics it has not aged well. It works well enough for the junior reader, but even young children these days know better than to call Native Americans 'red savages' and that for Ma to 'hate Indians' is hypocritical when they've claimed Indian land as their own, and when it was an Indian who warned the white settlers of the impending Long Winter (previous book). 'Darkies' or blackface actors provide the entertainment during the winter nights.

There is a strong element of racial superiority running through the book. The Wilder and the other settlers are of the opinion that white, Christian people are naturally superior to the savage Indians and the darkies.

Ma is also quite sexist, and sadly a very typical product of her time and place. An excited Laura is advised to "modulate your voice...Remember, 'Her voice was ever gentle, low and soft, an excellent thing in a woman' ". Laura is scolded for not wearing her corsets, and Ma despairs of her ever being a lady.

The story moves slowly at first but starts to pick up when Mary goes to college and Laura and Carrie go back to school. The scenes at the school with Nellie and Miss Wilder were much more exciting. It was nice to see Laura display anger, jealousy and resentment, perfectly natural human emotions. I felt though that there was too much effort by the writer to insert Christian morality into the book. Laura is frequently reprimanded by Ma, and it gets tiresome after a while. Vanity is a besetting sin and Laura has it drummed out of her. No human being can ever live up to Ma's ideal. And Laura feels guilty about it. Ma seems to spend too much time worrying about what is acceptable and what isn't.

Laura holds her own in the rivalry with Nellie though her conflict with Miss Wilder is never really resolved. The saving grace are the children. Laura is warm and funny and earnest, and her siblings and peers are just as interesting. Laura wants to get her teaching certificate so that her income can help the family and with Mary's college fees. But always in the background is the knowledge that she'll only teach for a few years, that her real career will be that of a Wife.

I can't help comparing Little Town with Little Women, which was written only a few years earlier. Mrs March is a much more sensible and liberal woman and the March girls are much more spirited, ambitious and curious. But then that is fiction and this is partly fiction.

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