Digital audiobook performed by Cherry Jones

Book seven in the popular classic Little House series, has Laura growing into a young lady. She feels that the new teacher, Miss Wilder, is unfairly picking on her and her sister. Nellie Oleson seems to be thwarting Laura at every turn. Mary has left to go to a college for the blind, and Laura takes on a part time job to help pay the expenses. The town is growing and with growth come new opportunities for socializing. Laura passes her examination to be certified as a teacher, and love begins to blossom.

I love this series for the way the pioneer spirit is portrayed and the strong family relationships.

THIS book, however, has a scene that is very uncomfortable for modern readers. The towns folks put on a minstrel show, including performers in blackface. I know this is historically accurate to the period, but I just cringed reading about it.

Cherry Jones does a fine job narrating the audiobook. I particularly like it when she sings the hymns or folk songs.

Over two car trips we finished listening to the wonderful Cherry Jones read book seven in the popular classic Little House series, as Laura Ingalls grows into a young (15-eyar-old, but mature for her age, given what she has been through) lady. In earlier books, ones I really prefer, such as The Long Winter, the Ingalls family was nearly starving, struggling to create the homestead and stay alive, but in this one, set in 1888 DeSmet, South Dakota, it is really about how a group of people begin establishing “civilization”—Church, School, and things like a Literary Society.

As a teacher, I pay attention to the creation of things lthere ike a spelling bee, where simple prairie people struggle in a competition to spell words no one will ever use, something that still happens in the SAT and ACT. To be” civilized” is to know big obscure words! They attend public debates about topics such “Who was a greater man: Lincoln or Washington?” Laura delivers a kind of summary of American history that ign9res the fact that they have displaced Native Americans entirely.

They study the Constitution in school, which is inspiring on one level, but as they see it, it is serving the white folks, of course. Ma says she hates Indians, and (saint) Pa (never criticized by Laura), participates in an appalling minstrel show, Pa in black face. School and church and Literary Society separate white settlers from the savages (the Indians, never much mentioned here).

So okay, I am not giving the tale a complete pass for all that, but I don’t think it is a complete contradiction to say the 1888 Ingalls family is still pretty sweet and charming, over all. Laura earns her teaching certificate at 15 (!) and is asked out sledding by her dreamy future husband Almanzo Wilder. She, no saint, gets in trouble for writing a poem criticizing her future sister-in-law, her terrible teacher. She gets a job working as a seamstress in town to put her blind sister Mary through college. I know, I know what I have said, but I still found a lot of it charming and fascinating in all its ethnographic-level detail. I like Laura and this family pretty well in spite of all their (historical) faults.

A random string of thoughts I had while reading:
Why put the kitten on the cover if she's barely featured?
Remember when Laura slapped Mary across the face, why hasn't she slapped Nellie Olsen?
Hmm, this minstrel show is really solidifying that this will be the end of this series for me.

I didn’t love this book quite as much as I’m enjoying my other rereads in the series. I feel a bit frustrated by hard Laura feels she has to study. Even on the 4th of July, she skips the celebrations to stay home with her nose to the grindstone. I admire her determination, but can’t see why she can’t even have that one day off.

It’s fun to see her mature and start walking out with Manly though. As with all the other books, the pleasure for me is the simple everyday life descriptions of life in a frontier town. And of course the family relationships, and the way the whole family pulls together no matter what adversity strikes them. Because there is always a battle to fight in these tough times.

I thought this was my favourite book in the series, but on reread, it’s definitely not.

I’m saving that honour for These Happy Golden Years.

This one was full of lively social events and the beginnings of Almanzo courting Laura. Charming and informative.

I really enjoyed this part of The Little House series. Laura is getting older, she's going to socials and formal parties, and Almanzo Wilder is actually interested in her and walking her home when her family attends revival meetings. And she gets her teaching certificate to teach at a school about 12 miles away.

Eleanor and Gwennie are both here, but before we begin, I want to tell MY favorite part... and I have to write it quietly because it's not quite appropriate.

Laura had just started working in town, when she saw these two men get kicked out of a bar. They were sloshed, and singing an old church hymn. They went through the town punching holes in the screens of local businesses, and Laura thought this was funny.

Laura got in trouble when she got home for thinking this was funny, but the last line of the chapter read: "Pa looked at Laura, and his eyes were still twinkling. Laura knew that he didn't blame her for laughing."

Maybe I'll add some more things I thought about as a grownup at the end of the review, but for now, I think the girls are ready to give their input. They're here talking about a baby-doll being allergic to babies. Before I start typing the review, I might just wait to see how this conversation plays out...

...

Dad: Ok ladies, are you ready to start the review?

... (They continue talking and counting...)

Dad: Ladies?

Ladies: Yes?

Dad: You ready?

Ladies: Yes!!!

Eleanor: Dad, are you writing equations?

Gwennie: He's writing too much!

E: Dad?

D: So lets talk about the book.

E: The first thing I want to talk about was that the men were saying, "I'm Tay Pay Pryor and I'm DRUNK! I'm Tay Pay Pryor and I'M DRUNK!"

D: (not outloud): ...Huh... I guess that part stuck with her too. It's weird that THAT'S the first part she mentioned, even though I don't think she understands what "drunk" is. ...Although, maybe I explained it to her in the reading... (outloud): Hey El, do you know what it means to be drunk?

E: It means... ...I don't remember... I don't remember, Daddy. And DON'T put that in the review, either. What? I don't remember what being drunk means? OOOOOOOOOOOoooooooohhhhhhhh.... If you drink too much wine, or alcohol, it makes you a little goofy - but goofy in a bad way.

D: Huh... you're right. Did I tell you that?

E: I think so, yeah.

D: Did you ask me about it?

E: Yes. When we got to that part in the book.

D: Well, what else did you like?

E: Well, maybe I can whisper in Gwennie's ear, and then she can tell you! That way she can help with the review!!!! *Whispers something to Gwen.*

G: I liked that Laura was able to become a teacher!!!!

D: Do you want to talk about anything else in the book?

E: Laura felt nervous a bunch of times - when she started working in town, when she was going to do mental math in front of the class, when she was going to the Thanksgiving party, when she was going to the birthday party, when she was going to the social, when she did the histories at the school exhibition...

D: That's an interesting observation, Eleanor. Nice job.

E: Thanks.

D: No, seriously. I'm not sure what to make of that, but I bet it's important. Let me also say, that I liked the race,

E: The 4th of July race?

D: Yeah... and that they got a cat, and I thought it was interesting that Laura got suspended.

E: Why is it interesting? It wasn't good for Laura and Carrie.

D: I know it wasn't good for them.

E: Then why were you saying it was interesting?

D: Maybe because I always hear people talk about how good people were back then, but it seems like even the best people got in trouble sometimes, you know?

E: I thought it was interesting when Pa got a mouse in his hair!

D: What did it do again?

E: It n  CUTn off his hair, and made n  TOOTH-MARKSn in his head!!!

D: HA! That's right! That was crazy!

E: Daddy, why don't we ever have a mouse in our hair?

G: (very scared) Can we not talk about it? I don't want to get scared.

D: Don't worry, it won't happen to us. We've got a cat that likes to catch anything that moves.

G: Do cats eat mouses?

D: It's not "mouses." Do you know how to say it?

E: YEAH! Do you want me to tell Gwennie?

D: mm-hmmm

E: It's mice.

G: Ohhhh...

E: Can I talk about the Happy Days, quick? Actually, I want to talk about how each walk they took seemed like the last walk they would have together.

D: Who?

E: Mary and Laura.

D: Was that part sad?

E: Yep.

D: Because their time together was ending?

E: Mm-hmmmm...

D: Well, all good things come to an end. And, maybe that's a good place to end this review too, because I think Gwennie's getting bored. :)

Better than the torrid slug of The Long Winter, but it has three major points against it:
- The Ingallses repeatedly eat tomatoes with sugar and cream as if this is a normal thing, and not, in fact, disgusting
- The uncomfortable blackface minstrel bit, hey-o!
- The continued character assassination of Eliza Jane.

The last one is a particular sticking point for me. Goddamn it, does Laura hate Eliza Jane, and goddamn it does it seem completely unjustified. She hates her because she's..um, too nice? (Won't hit the kids.) But then she hates her cause she's...not nice enough and punishes Laura's sister in a way that wasn't violent (in a time period when teachers routinely hit children, which Laura seems to think is totally sik af.) And in a later book she hates Eliza Jane cause she wants to help her brother organise his wedding? At least Nellie was a back-stabbing gossiping so and so. Eliza was just an inexperienced teacher whom Laura seemed to turn on because of misogyny. Ugh.

Also why tf is Carrie dying of Victorian Novel Disease? At least we know that Mary had an illness (possibly scarlet fever, possibly meningitis) and that's why she's blind, but Carrie is just..unspecified weakness. Maybe it's vitamin deficiency. Probably got rickets during that long winter.

I'm more of a fan of the earlier books when they weren't so fixated on wooing Almanzo's sexy horses with Almanzo as a secondary prize, and constantly talking about studying ("ooh I know what'd be a fun thing to do, a spelling and grammar competition!" - said absolutely no one.) I know, it was the 1880s and you had to find enjoyment wherever you can, but yikes.

edit: oh god I forgot the bit where they interrupted the story to recite the entire declaration of independence, which I skipped over because I'm not American and I don't care. Fuck you, Rose Wilder Lane!

This is likely my least favorite book so far, even though I still enjoyed elements of it. I liked the dramatic irony of Laura's hatred of Mrs Wilder as a teacher...and obviously every time Almanzo appeared was exciting, especially because he's obviously trying to court her and she's just like, "OMG maybe I can pet his beautiful horses!!" LOL I did not like the minstrel show bit. Big YIKES. And I don't know...there just wasn't as many lovable character moments in this one.

I read these books as a child, and though I don't tend to re-read, I thought this would be a good book for my reading challenge. It was really interesting reading this through an adult lens. I always thought Laura was spirited, but she was quite sassy as well. Some of her comments had me laughing out loud. I also loved seeing how people lived back then, and I lucked out, that this was the book, where Almanzo starts sort of courting Laura. It was cute how oblivious she was to his interest. This was a fun revisit to a childhood favorite.

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It is such a delight listening to this audiobook, decades after I first read the book as a child. After all these years, Nellie Olson is just as infuriating, Miss Wilder just as cruel, and Almanzo just as dashing. Theses stories are so simple, but their pacing and descriptions are really masterful.

I think I reread this and the books on either of it most often as a child, which doesn’t surprise me since in late childhood I was always interested in reading about teens and young adults, romance, etc. Many of the sentences were so familiar to me, even though I haven’t read this in at least twenty years, and the descriptions of nature are quite lovely. As with all the books I’m rereading, I have such mixed feelings — there is obvious terrible stuff like the minstrel show Pa participates in, and Ma’s continued racism, and just the whole settler mindset. I am feeling absolutely justified in my choice to give these away rather than give them to my kids. But as an adult I can also see the ambivalence around the edges, like Laura describing the town as a “sore” on the prairie, the way she and her family felt detached from the cult-like revival meeting, and just her general rejection of a lot of social stuff even as she wants to look pretty and be thought well of. The thing that’s the most personally striking to me, in the whole series but especially this book, is the girls’ sense of duty to the family and how hard everyone works in it for the common family good. While I didn’t want to give this book to my kids because all the settler colonialism feels like such poison….I’m also realizing I imbibed a lot of moral lessons from it that were pretty good for me, and not something that kids get in their media these days. Which sounds like an old lady complaint that people have been making forever, but I really do appreciate how Laura often feels rebellious or annoyed but does the right thing even if it’s just her chores, because she knows everyone else in the family is too.