Why, why, why did I never read this when I was younger? Well, I missed out! But I'm VERY happy to have read this now. I was enthralled with the classroom drama that happened while Miss Wilder (Almanzo's sister) was teaching school. I sure sympathized with her! Although she brought a lot of her troubles upon herself with her "we will all be happy and friends all the time" style of classroom management.

This is just a wonderful continuation of the story told in The Long Winter. And even though it is just over 300 pages, I wasn't ready for it to be over when it ended! I'm glad to know I can jump right into These Happy Golden Years! I'm probably the only person in the world who hadn't ever read this, but just in case, I highly recommend the entire series! Don't stop with reading just the first few books like I always did when I was younger.

A favorite quote: "'This earthly life is a battle,' said Ma. 'If it isn't one thing to contend with, it's another. It always has 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.'"

Book 9. Address me with the formal usted if you must address me at all.

Three stars. Pa doing blackface is NOT something I remember happening. Be better, Charles.

The three stars were earned by Almanzo and Laura exchanging name cards. On one hand, very Mr. Darcy’s hand in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie. And on the other hand, can you imagine flirting by handing someone your business card? I also delight in the fact that the most fun they had “ever had in my life!” was a town spelling bee. And honestly I get that. What I don’t get is why Laura mentions oyster crackers like forty times over the course of these books. She would’ve loved Goldfish.

Reading these through again, I’ve been struck by how this is as much Ma and Pa’s story as it is Laura’s. While this is the book where Laura really starts growing up, I think this is the book where Ma and Pa start feeling old, feeling loss. Mary is gone, Almanzo has begun to walk Laura home, Laura will soon be gone to her teaching position. Their children are beginning to leave them and that really hit me his time.

Reread from childhood. I loved it then and I loved it now. It's not my favorite from the series, but this is where Laura and Almanzo started dating and is super cute. It's a light read which I really needed right now.

*WARNING* This book has the only offensive scene in the whole series that I can remember. Pa performs dressed in blackface and is referred to as "Darky." Considering these books are based on the author's real life in the 1800s, I can look the other way. As a kid I just remember thinking he was dressed as some weird clown.

I tend to forget how much I love these books (and especially this one) until I re-read them for about the 60th time!! Now it's even nicer because I'm able to read them for the first time to my little sister who is loving them just as much as I did!

I think it’s impossible for me to give a Little House book any less than 5 stars.
In this book, perhaps more than any of the others, we see Laura’s fiery personality showing through. I particularly enjoy seeing her getting in tiffs with her old rival, Nellie Oleson. Fun fact, in real life there were several girls Laura struggled to get along with. One of them was named Genevieve. Laura combined them into one character for the books. We also see her have a tumultuous relationship with Eliza Jane Wilder, her future sister-in-law. How awkward that she wrote so negatively about her, when they were family. Was Eliza Jane alive at the publishing of the books? I wonder how she felt when she read them.
I also enjoy getting to see how truly mischievous Pa was. In many of Laura’s escapades, while Ma is truly appalled, Pa is just over there twinkling his eyes at Laura and trying not to guffaw.
I like seeing how protective and loving Laura is to her sisters. She works her butt off to send/keep Mary in college, and is always worrying over little Carrie.
I love reading about the beginnings of Laura and Almanzo’s romance. I wonder what led up to him first asking to see her home? I bet she was very intriguing to him. She certainly wasn’t your average demure Victorian, even if she tried to be.
School seems way harder back then. The stuff they did for the school exhibition seems very difficult.
I’m glad that the Ingalls family finally seems to be getting a time of rest. They seem more financially stable, and they aren’t starving to death. I’m breathing a sigh of relief for them.
I hate how none of them are allowed to cry.

Love this book just as much as always. Good ol' American heart, ethics, and Christianity <3 So fascinating to see what we were like 100+ years ago.

I went back and forth between the audio and the physical book to finish before the New Year’s deadline.

The book covers about a year and a half, Laura being 14 to 15 1/2. There were a lot of things I could relate to:

Carrie complaining about her hair getting caught in the buttons on the back of her dress — That happened to me when I was little, and I’d completely forgotten about it.
The birds eating the crops — They always pick clean my fruit trees, and that makes me so mad.
Laura being in awkward social situations — Story of my life.

There are a lot of life stories in this account, not just “this is how we lived back then stuff.” I found myself anxious to find out what happened next and felt outrage, happiness, and frustration along with Laura and her family. (Nellie Oleson shows up again — what a B**CH!)

The writing is lovely and offers an interesting historical (if not always PC) perspective.

Laura is growing up, still constrained by her society. Seriously, she's supposed to sleep in her corset? Some of the cultural differences are really striking- f'rinstance, this passage where Grace, who is all of four or five years old, starts to cry when her parents are going away for a week:

"'For shame, Grace! For shame! a big girl like you, crying' Laura choked out."

Yes, I know, Laura and Carrie are also trying not to cry, but the shaming is so toxic from my modern viewpoint that it skews the whole scene for me.

And then there's the 4th of July speech, cheered lustily by all the townsfolk:

"...They had to fight the British regulars and their hired Hessians and the murdering scalping redskinned savages that those fined gold-laced aristocrats turned loose on our settlements and paid for murdering and burning and scalping women and children..."

Again, context, context, context... but it's tough to swallow nonetheless.

There are some lovely scenes here, though. When Almanzo scoops Laura up and delivers her to school, when the best speller wins the spelling bee, when the letter comes from Mary, when Laura gives herself a lunatic fringe- those vignettes go a long way towards redeeming the book.

One more book to go and my trip down Memory Lane is over!

"A Town and a Young Girl Grow up”

Continuing the autobiographical sharing of her life in pioneer times Laura brings her loyal readers (mostly of the female persuasion) to the year after THE LONG and very hard WINTER. Her life as a town girl includes miserable hours in the school house run by Miss Eliza Jane Wilder--an inept and unfair teacher. Laura’s social nemesis from prior stories, darling Nellie Olson, shows up again to torment her in non-academic ways. Navigating social mores and coed activities proves a challenge to outspoken Laura, who must sacrifice tomboyish habits to experiment with feminine garb and gear. Growing up was never easy--then or now!

But our teenage protagonist struggles with increasingly adult concerns such as taking a part time job to help finance college for Mary, her blind older sister. Sacrifices for Family are not so hard in theory, but Laura must study diligently to earn her teaching certificate, so she may continue to bring in extra income—and keep her nimble mind ever agile with her writing and presentations in Literary Societies. Keeping up with her more sophisticated peers she wrestles with hidden corsets and public calling cards. But will handsome Almanzo Wilder ever take her seriously? Half Pint, as Pa calls her, will bloom like a wild prairie flower in the mid teen age years. (Mary is often away at college, while the life of their little sisters is often neglected.) Thus the narrative revolves more around Laura’s coming of age as the little town of De Smet also blooms in an unlikely place—where Laura gradually discovers what her life is meant to be: living for others--dear to her heart..

January 6, 2014

Little Town on the Prairie is book 7 in the Little House series. The Ingalls family divides their year between their homestead shanty (farm) in the summer and their house in town in winter. Mary leaves to attend college for the blind. Laura goes to school taught by Almanzo's sister, who has been swayed to dislike the Ingalls girls by the dreadful Nellie Oleson. Despite that, Laura begins a slowly building friendship with Almanzo, who walks her home from social events in town.

This is part of my summer re-read. I remember it as the last of the books where the Ingalls family is all together in one house, with Mary leaving for college and Laura soon going off to teach school.

Little Town on the Prairie is a very enjoyable read. I liked Laura's growing social life and confidence, all the Almanzo scenes (of course!), and the way she turns the table on Nellie, who is not quite as high and mighty as she was earlier in the series.

Highly recommended as a re-read - or a first-time read!