4.5⭐️

This installment was much more fun than the last. There were no crazy blizzards that resulted in near starvation and a level of cold that sinks into your bones and seems like it will stay there forever. In this book we see the Ingalls family experiencing more prosperity than ever before in the series. While their preparations for winter are much more thorough, they find themselves enjoying a mild winter almost completely free of the blizzards that plagued them the year before. The family has plenty to eat, plenty of fuel for their stove and hearth, and plenty of new and exciting entertainments when they move back into town for the winter.

Laura is now a young lady, and is getting closer and closer to becoming a teacher so that she can help support Mary, who leaves for college in this book. Laura develops friendships and starts to grow into herself, attracting the attention of her future husband. I enjoyed getting more details of life in town, from the birthday parties to the Literary meetings, from the current fashions to the autograph books and name cards that become so popular. Laura experiences so many tremendous changes in this book, but we are shown that even greater changes will be coming in the next installment.

I can’t believe I’m nearing the end of Laura’s story. Only two books left in the series!

Laura Ingall’s coming of age story from a playful, country girl to a town dwelling, courted, and educated young teacher.

So "The Long Winter" is about 7 months that were very long.

"Little Town on the Prairie" is about 3 years, most of the winters unworthy of mention.

But at the end, Laura is now a teacher and is being courted by Almanzo (even tough she's clueless about that being the case). Also, Mary's at college and hasn't been home in a few Christmases.

The school scenes are excruciatingly boring. No wonder Laura hated going so much. And yet.

I loved the sense of re-birth. After reading The Long Winter, it felt great to be warm and light-hearted again.

I quite enjoyed this installment of Little House #7-besides the fact that they used black-face as entertainment.

4-1/2 Stars

Another wonderful entry in the Ingalls family series. It is wonderful to see how the family has grown and changed as well as the world around them.

Earlier in the series, I mentioned that my two favorite of these books were "Plum Creek" and "Long Winter." I actually meant "Plum" and this one. I loved then, and now, the town growing alongside Laura and the interesting amusements. Her descriptions, as always, were wonderful. I joke that all I know of diagramming sentences I learned in this novel, but it's true.
I'd forgotten - or not realized - Laura's awkwardness when Almonzo started to court her :)

As we open, with the long hard winter finally over, spring brings renewed hope to the settlement. Pa resumes planting and mowing, and the family expands their claim shanty, though it remains unweatherproofed. Meanwhile, 14-year-old Laura secures a job at a new home goods store in town, sewing shirts to support her sister Mary’s education at a college for the blind in Iowa. Despite disliking the work, she perseveres for Mary’s sake.

A brief respite comes with the Fourth of July celebrations, where Pa, Carrie, and Laura enjoy patriotic festivities. The Declaration of Independence is read, though "all men are created equal" is surely skewed by total lack of awareness in how these white settlers are treating people of color, but that's just my observation, not there's. Laura contemplates the true meaning of independence, perhaps influenced by her real life daughter Rose Wilder's political views and editorial hand (true story). The highlight of the day is a thrilling buggy race won by Almanzo Wilder :)

Back home, Laura and MA continues sewing clothes for Mary’s departure, but disaster strikes as crows devour their crops, threatening their savings. Determined, Pa sells their young cow to ensure Mary attends college. Her departure leaves the house unusually quiet, but the family takes pride in her achievement.

In the Fall, school resumes with Eliza Jane Wilder as the new teacher, joined by Laura’s longtime rival, Nellie Olsen. Nellie’s influence turns Miss Wilder against Laura and her sister Carrie, leading to classroom chaos. Eventually, the school board restores order, and Miss Wilder departs.

Winter brings church socials, buggy rides with Almanzo, and a literary society for town entertainment, including a cringe minstrel show with Pa and others singing a racist song while painted in black face and the town folk calling them "darkies" (All men are created not so equal after all.) Yikes.

Laura studies diligently to earn her teaching certificate, eager to help fund Mary’s education. Though longing for adventure she lags a bit in her studies distracted by class friendships. Still she remains a top student. During the Summer she studies hard and catches up again.

As Christmas nears, Mr. Owen, the new school teacher, organizes a school exhibition where Laura and her best friend Ida recite American history thus far, flawlessly. Carrie also recites a poem, and Almanzo escorts Laura home, promising a sleigh ride in the future. That night, Mr. Boast and Mr. Brewster offer Laura a teaching position 12 miles away. Despite being underage at 15 years old now, she earns a third-grade teaching certificate, ending the novel as she prepares for her first teaching job.

Last book, food was so scarce and tiresome, but this year is different and Laura tells us all about it. One thing I enjoy about these books is hearing how they ate. Herring on bread and oyster soup, creamy cottage cheese, tomato preserves, cherry choke jelly, salt pork and baked beans, homemade bread and farm butter, dried corn (an “Indian” recipe, with another snipe about Native Americans from Ma) and even blackbirds baked in a pie. She makes it sound delicious but I sure would miss my curry and garlic and wasabi and soy sauce if I were living back then.

Then again you don’t miss what you never had. Anyway again I was confronted with reconciling the quiet racism with my nostalgia. I find myself sitting with the following essayist quote from NPR

"I think I first started reading the books in 1981, so we had very different sensibilities then,” said author and essayist Roxane Gay. “It didn’t even occur to anyone to think anything of the depictions of Indians in those books. And I think that’s deeply unfortunate and it shows just how much work we had to do with regards to recognizing the racism of those books.”

NPR Source

Laura is fast approaching womanhood and her family is settled in the town of De Smet in South Dakota. She's back at school with her friends, but her sister Mary has gone to college to learn to cope with her blindness and Laura is lonely without her. Although she's not keen on becoming a teacher, her goal is to get her teaching certificate so she can earn enough to help keep Mary at college. She is studying hard, but there are distractions; as well as socialising, there's the reappearance of an old adversary, Nellie Oleson, and the new teacher has taken a dislike to her. Also, she's attracted the attention of Almanzo Wilder, even though she's only 15.

Overall I enjoyed this book. The reappearance of the repellent Nellie Oleson is reminiscent of Laura's encounters with her in the TV series Little House on the Prairie, but I would have liked a bit more nastiness from Nellie!

So cozy

Something about this one left me feeling vaguely sad this time through.

I don’t remember, as a kid, paying much attention to Laura’s discontentment with her looks and her growing urge to fit in (cutting “lunatic fringe” bangs and fighting hoops in the wind). It was hard to listen to and frustrating to think this is the path all girls have traveled for a very long time.

Ma’s panic at the thought of a young man walking Laura home doesn’t seem as abstract as it once did. I want Laura to still be the little girl I love. I want my own girl to always be the little girl I love.

But I did laugh out loud when Almanzo gave Laura a lift to school and, before he had her in the buggy, my daughter yelled out, “I really hope Nellie sees!” And I loved the reminder that moms are the same across time: Laura got a stern rebuke about “wooden swearing” when she sighed and slammed a book shut.

I remembered just before it happened that the finale of their “literaries” was a minstrel show with the performers in blackface, complete with songs and repeated references to “darkies.” No one ever talked to me about this, but I took the chance to talk to my daughter.

I can’t get over how differently these books hit me as an adult than as a child. I loved them then; I love them now. But it’s definitely a more bittersweet experience. I consider that a compliment to Laura’s writing.