The Ingalls family have just come off that “long winter” with blizzard after blizzard after blizzard. Pa is working construction in town, in addition to growing corn and oats and raising a few animals on the homestead. In order to help with money to be able to send Mary to college, Laura takes a sewing job in town. Once that ends, school is starting. At 14-almost-15, Laura needs to be serious at school, so she can get her teacher’s certificate when she turns 16 so she can help with money in order to keep Mary at college.

A surprise person from Laura’s life a few years earlier reappears in her life at school this year. She knows who Almanzo Wilder is, as she sees him around town and he once gave her a ride to school when she is running late. As the Ingalls’ move into town for the second winter in a row, the people in town are creating more social activities to do. And the town keeps growing.

This is such an enjoyable series. The illustrations are very nice. There is one uncomfortable bit of town entertainment near the end, unfortunately, but at the time that it would have happened it wasn’t frowned upon, though it most certainly is now (to say the least). Laura’s recitation of American history is, while impressive, European white history. So, due to the time period it is set, there are some no-so-good things about the book, but overall, I still find these books a lot of fun.

2.5 stars

There's a lot in this book that didn't age well and made me cringe.

By this point, I was very much enjoying the series, but I found this book less memorable than the others. I still enjoyed it but honestly had to look up a summary to remember what happened.

Almanzo and Laura.....eeeee!
I loved seeing them together a little at the end!

Once again, a super sweet read. I found myself feeling so proud of Mary finally going to the college for the blind, and so proud of Laura getting her teacher's certificate. And Almanzo. <3 Of course I also continued loving the historical context of the story.

Only two more books to go, I think? I'm looking forward to them. :)

Content Advisory
Mention of strangers swearing, and also mention of the husband in a family Laura works for swearing while he and his wife constantly argue.

Laura witnesses a couple drunk men causing some destruction and singing. (She thinks it's funny.)

Mention of a minstrel show and a song from it is sung that repeatedly uses the tem "darkies". Pa himself is in the show and plays one of these characters and apparently wears black face.

One of my favorites out of the whole series.

I love seeing Laura start to really grow up and come into her own, and it's fun to see the beginning of her relationship with Almanzo.

I must admit, I do find it annoying that everyone has to sacrifice everything for Mary all the time. I know she's blind, but my goodness, everything Laura does is so Mary can have this or that. At least Laura can't be accused of being selfish!

Side note: I always have and probably always will hate Nellie Olson.

Really unsure of how to rate this book. I guess a 2.5 for now, since I did enjoy some but a lot was a let down.

I was really enjoying it until the chapter The Madcap Days. Like in some of the previous books where there is some racism seen through dislike of the Indigenous peoples, there is racism present in this novel as well in the form of a blackface minstrel show. This of course in is excusable, especially now as BLM is finally getting a great spotlight.

This has always been a series I have loved but I have never read this far into the series before and was unaware of this part as I haven't really seen it talked about. I was mainly enjoying this book until this chapter. I also found problems surrounding Laura. She seemed like a very different girl than she had in the previous books. She was meaner, cared less about school, and just less mature.

I did enjoy some parts though. I was happy to see Mary gain her wish to go to college and seeing the romance between Almonzo and Laura bud was nice. It was funny to see Nellie pop back up again and how she caused more troubles.

"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. Now Mary, I'm ready to fit the bodice." (PG. 89)

Newbery Honor Award-YA- 1941

What can I say about this classic that hasn't been said before? Nothing new, I'm sure.

I enjoyed it and the innocent way it is written. It would be a good book for anyone to read. I did find it a bit boring in some parts but I was fascinated at prairie living and the age of consent to marry and have a job with only a certificate. Now it costs a bajillion dollars to be a teacher or a nurse. It's all very informative American history.

I don't believe in banning books and whatever happened long ago can't be judged by anyone today. It was just the way it was. Like, am I going to be judged for pooping myself at 3 years old or asking why someone looks a certain way 20 years ago? Probably not. But I did have a problem with a short chapter here. The chapter where Pa and his neighbors played the darkies. Black face was hilarious to the townsfolk. It was the highlight of the night. No one could miss the show, weak with excitement. Luckily, it was short and cringe-worthy to the me of today. I would like to believe I'd be the champion for change but let's be honest... only .01% of people would actually have the courage to say anything, even now. Maybe it's gone up thanks to the movements of recent years but I believe most people wouldn't say anything out of fear of being different from the crowd. Joneses and Crowd mentality right? Anyway, Laura Ingalls lived in a different time of free land and teaching certificates so this is just her story, her memories.

Other than that scene, it was just okay. Something calm and innocent to read. Enjoyable.

Well yes, I have definitely very much enjoyed and appreciated how the seventh Little House on the Prairie novel, how Little Town on the Prairie is not just about the Ingalls family trying to farm and to basically make ends meet, to simply survive anymore, but that Laura Ingalls Wilder’s words in Little Town on the Prairie also and very strongly feature a school and frontier town story (set in De Smet South Dakota, with Laura and her younger sister Carrie both enjoying and at times despising school, with both decent and not so decent teachers, with entertainments, literary societies and weekly church gatherings, and finally, with 15 year old Laura Ingalls at the end of Little Town on the Prairie receiving a state certificate so she can leave home to teach so that her earned salary will help keep older sister Mary at her college for the blind).

However, as much as Little Town on the Prairie has been an interesting and educational reading experience, I have also been rather frustrated and even at times a trifle bored with and by some if not much of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s featured and presented text. For honestly, since I have always found Mary Ingalls much more personally relatable and more engaging than her sister and main protagonist Laura (at least to and for me), having Mary leave for college and then basically pretty well disappear from the narrative of Little Town on the Prairie (except for occasional references to her and that Mary is seemingly settling in well at and also much enjoying her college experience), yes indeed, this certainly has made Laura Ingalls Wilder’s narrative not as immediate and considerably less personally engaging, not enough for me to not have enjoyed reading Little Town on the Prairie but certainly enough to take some of the shine off of my reading joy and to only consider Little Town on the Prairie with but a high three star ranking. Because yes and definitely, as soon as Mary leaves for college, my reading pleasure regarding Little Town on the Prairie certainly ended up being diminished more than a trifle (and not to mention I also kind of think that the shenanigans between Laura Ingalls, Nellie Oleson and school teacher Eliza Wilder have felt a bit dragging and tedious for me personally).

Oh and finally, with regard to that minstrel show episode in Little Town on the Prairie (which is part of the town of De Smet’s featured public entertainments) and where Charles Ingalls plays a significant role (and in black face), while I have of course found said scene majorly uncomfortable from a modern point of view and perspective, considering that both in the 19th century and when Little Town on the Prairie was penned (in 1941) minstrel shows with actors pretending to be African American were still seen as rather acceptable and not as something necessarily negative and degrading towards African Americans, I really do not consider that Laura Ingalls Wilder’s words are to be seen as deliberately bigoted and nasty here but simply a sign of the times, something that needs to be discussed, no doubt, but as part of historical reality, equally something that in my opinion gives Little Town on the Prairie a problematic but necessary portrait of reality.

Another wonderful entry into the series. While I find some things in the book offensive, I love being able to see what life was like for the pioneers who ventured into the west. The readers gets to experience both the mistakes they made as well as the things they did right. I don't judge them or shame them because they were living life on a day to day basis and doing the best they could. Laura Ingalls Wilder was recording things the way she remembered them.

As with all the Little House series the thing that is at the center of it all is family and Laura's relationship with each of the members of her family. That is what I love most and here the bond between Laura and Mary is especially on display.

To me this is one of the best books of the series.

From what I understand, Nellie Oleson in the books was a composite of two or three girls (imagine there being multiples of the nasty little creature!), so the Nellie here may not be the same as the Nellie we've met before. Whoever she is, she stinks. (Nellie rhymes with smelly.) And she's evil. (Witch rhymes with something else.)

Almanzo starts to show an interest, which Laura is too young to understand. It's especially interesting to watch her parents' responses to this. Ma is not happy. Laura is too young to be courted. But Pa knows a good man when he sees one, and he isn't going to do his half-pint the disservice of chasing this one away.