3.5 stars from me, 5 from Owen.

His review:

I chose to have more than a zillion stars. It was about the author growing up when she was a kid. One of the most interesting part was about the [wheat] thrasher guys. They had this big machine that ran on horsepower called the separator. It separated wheat.

There was a dance in it at Grandpa's house. The author's Grandpa used maple trees to make maple syrup that they put on snow to make yummy candy.

It was all about the 1870s, when Laura Ingalls Wilder was a girl. Parents living in the 1870s were not called Mom and Dad or Mother and Father, they were called Ma and Pa. Instead of "lunch", lunch was called dinner, and dinner was called supper, and breakfast was called breakfast. And it's really cool.

They killed a pig for butchering time. And Laura Ingalls Wilder really liked bear meat, and had a big sister named Mary and a little sister named Baby Carrie. And in the book, a bear got shot with a pig, which it had just killed, and was standing on hind legs holding it with its paws like they were hands. The end.

Perhaps if I read this book when I was younger I would have appreciated it more. Nice enough story but a little sappy as I’m not 6-8 years old...but I will probably continue with the series.

Another classic read with the kids!

I think as we get more into an era where kids don’t know a time without computers and easily accessible technology, books like Little House in the Big Woods will start to appeal less to the young crowd. Listening to stories of pioneer life is so far removed from what they know it is at times incomprehensible. At least when I was a kid we were not all that far removed from a simpler and less wired lifestyle. I do think my kids enjoyed the time we took to read this together, but it was much less easier for them to stay interested in than in some other books we read (Willy Wonka and his fantastic factory and elevator, Bunnicula the vampire rabbit, Ralph and his Motorcycle (which also had some more old timey content that was a bit hard to connect to, but nothing like Little House)). I will continue to read to them and hope to keep the spirit of these classics alive.

I know that this was the second time reading this. I vividly remember the cover as the same one from elementary school. But before I re-read it, it would have been impossible for me to tell you anything about it. However, as our family got into it, I noticed some of the parts were very familiar. Apparently, I had retained a lot of the content, but my brain hadn’t filed it with any point of reference. I kept looking at my wife and kids while I was reading and saying, “Hey, I remember this!”

But I am also pretty sure that this is the only book I read in the series. I never moved on to Little House on the Prairie and I never watched the television show. Maybe this time I will move on to the second book with my family. Seems like I really must at some point to get the full feel of this classic series.

One major thing to point out about the first book that stood out to me, and is not really a criticism - it just is what it is – is that there is not a whole lot of plot. The point of the book is that each chapter shares a little bit of what life was like for the children while living through the year secluded in the big woods. So, instead of a beginning, middle, and end, you get a series of detailed anecdotes about some aspect of life in the cabin. I would be interested to know if that is how the rest of the series is as well.

This selection is worth checking out – especially if you are looking for something easy to read with the kids.

Disclaimer: Frequently as of late, books and movies have been putting disclaimers on content with dated cultural depictions. While Little House in the Big Woods does seem sweet and innocent, there is a song sung by the father with racial slurs. I am sure it was representative of what was acceptable at the time, but I wanted to make sure that anyone who might be sensitive to this know about it up front.

For a few years now, I've been interviewing my twins after they finish reading their books, posting those interviews on their own goodreads profile. My girl, Brontë, finished reading Little House in the Big Woods about a month ago, and I read it this week (I always read or reread the books they've read.) You can see that interview with me right here:

Brontë: So first ... did you like it? did you love it? or did you hate? did you think it was okay? or did you really like it?

Pa: I loved it. It was good. Much better than I expected.

Brontë: Who was your favourite character?

Pa: Hmmm ... that's a tough one because I loved Pa and Laura a lot, but I also dug Ma. Mary's a bit of pain, but to be fair, the story is being told by Laura, and little sisters don't tend to be too kind to their older sisters. So maybe I can't judge Mary on that. But I guess I like Pa the best because he's really the focus of the story for Laura. He's the one she talks most about. And he seems like a pretty good guy.

Brontë: Interesting.

Pa: Did you expect something different? Did you think I'd like someone else?

Brontë: I thought you'd say Laura, but my second favourite was Pa.

Pa: So we're reversed.

Brontë: Yeah.

Pa: I figured you'd like Laura best.

Brontë: What was your favourite moment and your favourite chapter?

Pa: My favourite moment was when Ma slapped the bear in the night. That was awesome. And my favourite chapter was the Maple Syrup dance on the day of the sugar snow. That was pretty cool. I loved how everyone really just had fun even with all the hard work that still had to be done.

Brontë: Did you like the Harvest chapter?

Pa: That must have been your favourite.

Brontë: It was one of my favourites.

Pa: Yeah. I liked it. It was awesome. Charley deserved to get stung by the bees.

Brontë: Yeah he did. When that happened I almost said, "Get off your lazy butt and do some work!"

Pa: Yeah he was lazy all right, and a total pain the ass. Pa didn't approve of the way Charley ignored his Dad, did he?

Brontë: No, he didn't. I thought the same thing. I love how in the picture when he was wrapped in the bandages all the girls were staring at him with mean faces on.

Pa: That's something else I loved, the art.

Brontë: Oh yeah, the art was beautiful.

Pa: But Laura's writing was even more beautiful. I was impressed.

Brontë: I agree.

Pa: It was so clear and descriptive, and I felt like I was there sometimes.

Brontë: Me too. Every moment I felt like I watched it in my head.

Pa: It's cool when you read a book like that.

Brontë: And then I could look at the pictures and think, that's what the boys and girls look like and watch it in my head as I read.

Pa: I think I could see what they looked like even without the pictures.

Brontë: Yeah, me too.

Pa: The writing was just that good.

Brontë: Especially what she said, like in the dance part when the girls were getting ready, and she described what the dresses looked like and you could totally see the dresses in your head.

Pa: Darn good book. Thanks for reading it so I could.

Brontë: No problem. Don't forget to say thanks to Auntie Marci too.

Pa: And Ma. It's her book.

Brontë: Yeah, you're right.

Pa: So when are you going to read Little House on the Prairie?

Brontë: Umm ... after I finish The Templeton Twins.

Pa: I'm looking forward to it.

I lived and breathed everything Little House as a child. I read the series so many times I nearly wore my set out.

There’s something nostalgic and intrinsic about returning to childhood stories as an adult. There’s something beautiful about the way things used to be. Life was simple, but it was hard. Just reading Laura’s insights on what had to be done to prepare to survive the cold winters shows this. And the detailed processes! I mean from killing a calf for rennet to make cheese, to butchering pigs, to harvesting maple sugar, to cheese making, to braiding straw for straw hats, it is just incredible.

The simplicity is also refreshing…playing with homemade dolls, making window pane pictures with thimbles, cosy evenings of fiddle music, such joy over a rag doll for Christmas, playing with a pig bladder balloon (gross, but moving on…). There’s something to be said for the beauty of simple things.

Strangest thing happened: Last time I read this book, it was about a girl with the same name who grew up in the same state I did, just a few years before me, and she got to run around barefoot and eat maple sugar and churn butter and play dolls. But when my son read it, it was a book about a man named Pa who hunts deer and harvests wheat and fights off a bear-shaped stump and finds some honey. So I read it again because all the stories my son was noticing where not the stories I remembered! Turns out it's also the story of a hard-working, long suffering mom who keeps the family clothed and fed through a year of unrelenting seasonal demands. WHO KNEW!? This book was more than I remember

It's also a little more boring than I remember. This book is a lot of descriptions of how meat was cured and how to prepare a log cabin for winter and descriptions of fabric and it's almost not a story at all, but I can hardly critique the book now. It already formed my imagination years ago, and I love it for that.

Originally written in 1932, this beloved classic continues to be charming today. This first of the series details what daily life was like for the Ingalls family in the woods of Wisconsin. It was a simpler and harder working time. It was a joy to reconnect with the little house in the big woods.

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
4

This is a heart-warming story of life in a cabin in the Big Woods of Wisconsin where Laura's mother stayed busy preparing food, clothing, even hats for her family, and where Laura's father brought in food through hunting and farming and bee-tree robbing even. These parents were so incredibly busy with food production, preparation and storage that it makes our lives seem absolutely sedentary in comparison.

Since most of us have forgotten how hard our pioneering ancestors worked, this book, written for children of course, is a revelation. I never read Little House books until I was in my 30's so I missed out on learning all these things as a child. I'm reading them again now, and I'm 70... and I'm still enjoying the reading. Each chapter is good for an evening... though they are short chapters, for the most part.

Laura was a very young child during this first book in the Little House series - probably preschool age. Neither of the girls attended school yet, though that could be in part because they lived in the woods, seven miles from the town of Pepin, Wisconsin. That town still exists on the north bank of the Mississippi River, southeast of Minneapolis.

কী সুন্দর! :) সকালে উঠা, কিছু কাজ কর্ম করা বা বাবা-মা কে করতে দেখা, এরপর বাবার গল্প আর গান শুনতে শুনতে ঘুমিয়ে যাওয়া এমন প্রতিদিনকার ব্যাপার দিয়েও মুগ্ধ করা যায়! এটা একমাত্র তখনই সম্ভব যখন এটা একটি ছোট্ট বাচ্চার চোখে দেখা হয়। আমি ওর চোখ দিয়ে দেখে ম্যাপেলের গুড় তৈরিতে অবাক হই, ফসল মাড়াইয়ের যন্ত্র আমার কাছে অবাক করা কিছু মনে হয়। কাঠের ছোট্ট দোকানে জিনিসপত্রের রাজ্যে মনে হয় আমি হারিয়ে যাচ্ছি। ফায়ার প্লেস আর বাবার কোলের উষ্ণতা ঘিরে ধরে আমাকে। বনের ধারে কাঠের গুড়ি দিয়ে গড়া সেই ঘরই যেন স্বর্গ, স্বর্গ‌ের এখানে কোনো প্রয়োজন নেই। সুন্দর...এগুলো পড়লে মনেহয় শিল্প বিপ্লব না হওয়াটাই বোধহয় ভাল ছিল। হার্ড ওয়ার্কিং ফিলস গুড!

হালকা একটা আশঙ্কা হচ্ছে, লরা তো মনে হয় সিরিজ চলতে চলতে বড় হয়ে যাবে, তখন কি এই মুগ্ধতা থাকবে...?? দেখা যাক!

So I'm currently working my way through the Little House series. I read a few of these as a child and watched a little of the TV Show. There has been quite a bit of controversy surrounding these books as the award (Laura Ingalls Wilder Award) was removed by the ALA and changed to the Children's Literature Legacy Award. For my own personal reasons, I wanted to go back and read this series as an adult and truly understand the intricacy of the controversy surrounding it. For that reason, I will be reviewing these titles, but leaving them unrated.

Before I begin this review, I want to point out that these stories are stories of their time. Some of the content gives readers insight to what it was like for families such as Laura's to live and survive during the 1800s and some of the content is harmful. As a librarian, it is against my personal code of ethics to tell people not to read a book. However, I try to encourage all readers to read these stories and use it as an opportunity to discuss why the content is harmful to certain groups. I also encourage readers to try stories that give a scope of this time period without all of the problematic content and come from marginalized voices that are often underrepresented.

Little House in the Big Woods is interesting in the fact that it doesn't really have much of a plot. Readers simply follow Laura and her family through day to day activities or special holidays. Nevertheless, it does set the stage for understanding the ins and outs of settler life. The way in which they caught animals for food, interacted with others, celebrated holidays, and more will prove to be interesting for children reading this from a 21st century perspective. In the same regard, there are parts of the text that warrant discussion and illustrate the casual racism that existed in the 19th century. One that stood out to me that I had to read over and over occurred during a song that Pa sang to Laura and her sister. The lyrics included the term "darkey" which is a clear reference to a Black person. As a Black person, it is never a thought in my mind to excuse racial slurs and even at 31 and reading this in 2022, I was extremely uncomfortable. I couldn't imagine reading this to my daughter (at a young age) and having to have a conversation about why people thought it was remotely appropriate to use such a term and in such a casual situation. It; however, was the norm for Laura and her family. There is no conversation about the inhabitation of land that technically did not belong to the Ingalls family or any other settlers which unfortunately, for me, was expected. As with a lot of these older books, the idea or consideration for Native/Indigenous communities never seems to exist.

I understand that many people hold this book and the rest of the series dear to their hearts because it was such a huge part of their childhood; however, I think that it is just as important to point out what behaviors and language are no longer appropriate, but are clearly woven into the pages of these stories. That doesn't mean that there aren't lessons to be taken from this or that it doesn't provide a historical picture of life in the 19th century; however, I think it is detrimental to ignore the harmful content and not use it as a means for open dialogue. There were parts of the story that I did find interesting, but I think that reading this as a BIPOC woman made the experience a little different. Stories have a way of making people feel seen and also unseen. So while this may be such a fond memory for many, I can only question the level of discomfort and pain that it causes others. Does this mean that we cancel these books? Absolutely not. However, I think that openly engaging with this text without true discernment of it's harmful content doesn't do good either.

Overall, I can see why these stories would be appealing to children. The adventure and suspense of life out in the wilderness would seem fun to many. I will be continuing the series, but with caution and keen awareness to some of the content that often goes unaddressed.

“Stop crying, Laura….Don’t be so greedy.”

“Then he took down a strap from the wall, and he whipped Laura with the strap.”

Little House in the Big Woods has not aged well.

First, the book has graphic depictions of hunting and preparing carcasses. Reading this aloud was very uncomfortable especially for a pescatarian.

Second, the parents in Little House in the Big Woods were too harsh. My parenting philosophy can be described as, "Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!" Thanks, Ms. Frizzle! Contrast that with this book. In one scene, a little boy named Charley is stung by hundreds of yellow jackets. When the child is swollen and suffering tremendously, the father said, “It served the little liar right.” Whoa. Where is the compassion for this child? Where is the love thy neighbor? This child could have died!

This book gave me a bad feeling when I was reading it. Be gone, dark cloud! Be gone!

2025 Reading Schedule
JantA Town Like Alice
FebtBirdsong
MartCaptain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
AprtWar and Peace
MaytThe Woman in White
JuntAtonement
JultThe Shadow of the Wind
AugtJude the Obscure
SeptUlysses
OcttVanity Fair
NovtA Fine Balance
DectGerminal

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