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Oh man, I loved re-reading this so so much. It was just magic.
Ease Reading-Find Your Next Favorite Book
Little House #1
Little House in the Big Woods
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America's Original Pioneer Girl
Meet Laura Ingalls, the little girl who would grow up to write the Little House books.
Wolves and panthers and bears roam the deep Wisconsin woods in the late 1870's. In those same woods, Laura lives with Pa and Ma, and her sisters, Mary and Baby Carrie, in a snug little house built of logs. Pa hunts and traps. Ma makes her own cheese and butter. All night long, the wind howls lonesomely, but Pa plays the fiddle and sings, keeping the family safe and cozy.
Little House in the Big Woods is the first book in the Laura Years series.
238 pages, Paperback
First published January 1,1932
This edition
- Format
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238 pages, Paperback
- Published
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January 1, 2005 by Harperfestival
- ISBN
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9780060797508
- ASIN
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0060797509
- Language
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English
Characters More characters
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Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) was an American writer known for the Little House on the Prairie series of childrens books, published between 1932 and 1943, which were based on her childhood in a settler and pioneer famil...
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Charles Ingalls
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Mary Ingalls
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Community Reviews
Rating(4 / 5.0, 99 votes)
5 stars
28(28%)
4 stars
39(39%)
3 stars
32(32%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
99 reviews All reviews
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I'd been in the mood to read about Laura and the pioneer life so when I found a few books in the series at an estate sale for $.25, I picked them up and went right for this first one. Not quite as good at this stage of my life as I remembered them from when I was a kid, but still a great, classic read. Written the year my mother was born, I could relate to parts of the story through her, and imagined a little more what life might have been like for my grandparents. If you're feeling nostalgic, if you think your life is hard or boring, or if you wonder why children and teens used to be more respectful, dig into this series.
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Nov 2017: Kai enjoyed it! Eve said she did too, but she didn’t listen much. We listened on Audible.
Oct 2016: I loved revisiting this book and am excited to get through the rest of the series. I will wait a year or two to read with the kids because I really want them to appreciate it. This really was a beautiful look into a different world. Her language was simple, but beautiful and so well crafted. There was simple humor and language which would appeal to kids. But it also immersed me into a world so different from my own. I almost wish I lived "back in the day". So much hard work, but how amazing to make everything with your hands. And how amazing to have such a close family and great values. Great standard and lessons for modern day families!
Oct 2016: I loved revisiting this book and am excited to get through the rest of the series. I will wait a year or two to read with the kids because I really want them to appreciate it. This really was a beautiful look into a different world. Her language was simple, but beautiful and so well crafted. There was simple humor and language which would appeal to kids. But it also immersed me into a world so different from my own. I almost wish I lived "back in the day". So much hard work, but how amazing to make everything with your hands. And how amazing to have such a close family and great values. Great standard and lessons for modern day families!
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5 Stars
This is the book, the place where my love affair with reading began. I loved this story so much, it was as though I were drunk with it. I remember the rush of joy I felt when my teacher told me there was a whole series to read. I've felt that same magic, joyous feeling again and again over the years and nothing makes me happier than to see that same joy in other book lovers.
This is the book, the place where my love affair with reading began. I loved this story so much, it was as though I were drunk with it. I remember the rush of joy I felt when my teacher told me there was a whole series to read. I've felt that same magic, joyous feeling again and again over the years and nothing makes me happier than to see that same joy in other book lovers.
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I found this book among my aunts' collections in my grandpa's house when i was living there for three-months back in 1987. Once I read it, I never stop to read over and over again.
Well, the life of the Ingalls is wonderful indeed. But what attracts me more is the fact that this book always makes me hungry all the time. You don't believe me, do you? Well, don't take my words for it, just try yourself...especially when you're reading through the "pouring hot maple syrup in the snow", "roasting the pigtails", and "smoking the sliced venison using hickory woods"...even the salted fishes for winter sound very tasty there...ouch!
Well, the life of the Ingalls is wonderful indeed. But what attracts me more is the fact that this book always makes me hungry all the time. You don't believe me, do you? Well, don't take my words for it, just try yourself...especially when you're reading through the "pouring hot maple syrup in the snow", "roasting the pigtails", and "smoking the sliced venison using hickory woods"...even the salted fishes for winter sound very tasty there...ouch!
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Little House in the Big Woods is what Walden wishes it was, or could have been if Thoreau wasn't such a dick. Laura and her family aren't misanthropic creeps - and they have real skills, unlike vacationing Thoreau. But the book is about self-reliance, getting back to the basics, and living in harmony with nature. It shares a philosophy with Walden - along with two other sortof less-great things.
The first is a hopeless lack of plot, and that frustrated me when I first read it. And I do mean first read: this was the first chapter book I ever read all by myself. I battled through the entire series, because my mother told me I'd be a good reader when I was done, and I suppose it worked (I can read!) but honestly I should have just stuck to comic books; the meandering pace here wasn't a great match for little me. (Some of the Little House books have more plot than others.)
The second thing Little House shares with Walden is that it's bullshit. Thoreau went home to his mommy when he wanted cookies, and Laura's real life family were subsistence farmers always one bad season away from starving to death. Wilder leaves out her real brother's death in infancy to focus on singing by the fire. Both books hide the hardships of the lives they promote.
Wilder's book was published in 1932, during the Depression, and it was a collaboration between Wilder and her daughter Rose Wilder Lane, who was a successful novelist and also a rabid libertarian who advocated the assassination of New Dealing FDR and threatened to do it herself. This is the story Lane and Wilder want to sell you: hardy stock living by their own hard work without government interference. In reality, the Wilders lived harsh and desperate lives. Young, just-married Laura's first farm failed, and she lost it. It was only these books that finally pulled her out of a life of poverty - these books, which advocated exactly the grueling life they rescued her from.
That said, this is still a great source of information about such topics as:
- Making maple sugar
- Square dancing
- How much Laura's sister sucks
- Why children should be seen and not heard - remember when that was a thing? Ha!
- Old-timey songs, and there's a song about an "old darkey" who dies that you will need to watch out for if you're reading this to your child. It's in chapter 5. That's the only truly oh-shit content.
- Weaving straw hats
- Old-time candy - if there is a plot, it's that Laura Ingalls Wilder has a sweet tooth; this book is basically about candy
- Leaving babies in a pile on a bed while everyone does square dancing
- Extremely specific gender roles
It's pleasant enough to read, if a little boring. Just keep in mind, when Laura says,
It can never be now, either; it never existed at all.
The first is a hopeless lack of plot, and that frustrated me when I first read it. And I do mean first read: this was the first chapter book I ever read all by myself. I battled through the entire series, because my mother told me I'd be a good reader when I was done, and I suppose it worked (I can read!) but honestly I should have just stuck to comic books; the meandering pace here wasn't a great match for little me. (Some of the Little House books have more plot than others.)
The second thing Little House shares with Walden is that it's bullshit. Thoreau went home to his mommy when he wanted cookies, and Laura's real life family were subsistence farmers always one bad season away from starving to death. Wilder leaves out her real brother's death in infancy to focus on singing by the fire. Both books hide the hardships of the lives they promote.
Wilder's book was published in 1932, during the Depression, and it was a collaboration between Wilder and her daughter Rose Wilder Lane, who was a successful novelist and also a rabid libertarian who advocated the assassination of New Dealing FDR and threatened to do it herself. This is the story Lane and Wilder want to sell you: hardy stock living by their own hard work without government interference. In reality, the Wilders lived harsh and desperate lives. Young, just-married Laura's first farm failed, and she lost it. It was only these books that finally pulled her out of a life of poverty - these books, which advocated exactly the grueling life they rescued her from.
That said, this is still a great source of information about such topics as:
- Making maple sugar
- Square dancing
- How much Laura's sister sucks
- Why children should be seen and not heard - remember when that was a thing? Ha!
- Old-timey songs, and there's a song about an "old darkey" who dies that you will need to watch out for if you're reading this to your child. It's in chapter 5. That's the only truly oh-shit content.
- Weaving straw hats
- Old-time candy - if there is a plot, it's that Laura Ingalls Wilder has a sweet tooth; this book is basically about candy
- Leaving babies in a pile on a bed while everyone does square dancing
- Extremely specific gender roles
It's pleasant enough to read, if a little boring. Just keep in mind, when Laura says,
"This is now."
She was glad that the cosy house, and Pa and Ma and the firelight and the music, were now. They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now. It can never be a long time ago.
It can never be now, either; it never existed at all.
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But Laura lay awake a little while, listening to Pa’s fiddle softly playing and to the lonely sound of the wind in the Big Woods. She looked at Pa sitting on the bench by the hearth, the firelight gleaming on his brown hair and beard and glistening on the honey-brown fiddle. She looked at Ma, gently rocking and knitting.
She thought to herself, “This is now.”
She was glad that the cosy house, and Pa and Ma and the firelight and the music, were now. They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now. It can never be a long time ago.”
Simply the best passsage of American prose. Never once read it without tears. This morning my student said, "Miss Cindy, are you crying?" I was supposed to finish the book on Tuesday but it was a rough day for me because of my dad and so I knew better than to read the last chapter on that day.
She thought to herself, “This is now.”
She was glad that the cosy house, and Pa and Ma and the firelight and the music, were now. They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now. It can never be a long time ago.”
Simply the best passsage of American prose. Never once read it without tears. This morning my student said, "Miss Cindy, are you crying?" I was supposed to finish the book on Tuesday but it was a rough day for me because of my dad and so I knew better than to read the last chapter on that day.
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A prominent book of my childhood. Loved the books; thrilled when it became a television show. Learned much about this history of our country from this series. Also about sharing a compelling story.
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