JAR5-Wil

More than any other installment in the series, this book reads like a mediocre TV script.

A friend gave me the first four in these series, but in reading this book I was disappointed to find that they do not match the quality of the Little House on the Prarie books. I was further disappointed to discover that in the past there was some debate over the legality of publishing these books. Needless to say, I am very disappointed in this series.

This was just terrible-he added a character with a lisp and a kid who constantly burps up sardines.

Gave up on page 106. Not a bad book, nothing offensive, I've just never liked Almanzo Wilder, and now I hate him.

Still not historically correct-book had Pa visiting Laura 4 years after he’d died. And I seriously doubt he ever called her “Laurie”. The Youngun kids are still horrible with their “jokes”. This particular book was sometimes hard to tell the reminiscing from the actual time frame of the story.

Can I give it less than 1 star? Every character is completely annoying. It's horrible that this author decided to use well respected historical figures to prop up his story about the most annoying unsympathetic children ever. And he couldn't even get the history correct.

Not as good as some of the others in this series. I enjoyed somewhat reading about Pa’s visit and adventure with Laura, but I honestly get tired of the kids antics that sound more like kids in today’s world rather than in the early 1900’s. Also, this series doesn’t have the same purity as the good old Little House books written by Laura Wilder herself.

I can't even finish this book, it's so terribly written. The author uses the names of the Ingalls and Wilder families, but appears never to have read any of the writings of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane, or Roger Lea McBride.

The story, according to the author, takes place in 1906, when Pa Ingalls rides the train from South Dakota to Missouri to visit Laura. In actuality, Charles Ingalls died in 1902. Laura took the train from Missouri to South Dakota to be with him in his final days. In the book, he also calls her "Laurie." In no writing of any of the authors associated with Laura in real life is she ever referred to by this name. Laurie, during Pa's lifetime, was a boy's name, derived from Laurence. Neither Pa nor Ma would have ever used a boy's name for Laura. And the story has Pa constantly fingering a "lucky" fifty-dollar gold piece. If Pa had a fifty-dollar gold piece, he would have had it in his pocketbook, not flashing it around, inviting robbery. And calling it "lucky" would have been seen as superstitious at best, idolatrous at worst, in the moral code of his time.

If an author is going to use real people, even in a novel, said author should keep it close enough to actual facts that disbelief can be suspended. Just getting the dates wrong turns the entire book into a pack of lies.

These are cute and entertaining little vignettes of what the author imagined the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder to be like. They are not based on historical fact but are fun to read and good for younger audiences as they are simple and easy to read and the stories are simple and relate more to young people. I always like to read more about literary characters that I enjoy even if it isn't all true so in that sense, I enjoy these stories. Analiz and I have been reading them together.

Very good story; well written. I think Tedrow really captured the time well.

Biggest annoyance? He made PA keep calling Laura "Laurie" and changed his vernacular into something very countrified, which Pa never was. His nickname for her was "Half-Pint" and NEVER Laurie. This was so annoying. And the whole story about the gold piece was so absurd----Pa was not a superstitious man. In fact he cautioned Caroline against superstition in the real books, and he was incredibly practical. He would have used that gold piece to provide for his family in real life. Otherwise, enjoyable. The part about him just wanting to set out for old homestead, however reckless does track with real life Pa.