Little House on the Prairie series

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Little House on the Prairie series

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1MrsLee
Okt. 19, 2016, 9:47 am

I did a cursory search, but didn't see a thread on this topic. I loved this series, and hope others will feel free to discuss it here.

I am making this thread though, to let you all know about a Kindle deal for Prime members today, A Wilder Rose: a Novel by Susan Wittig Albert is free today, or $1.99 if you are not a Prime member. This book explores the writing of the series and Rose Wilder Lane's part in it. I've heard mixed reviews, but I think positive. Haven't read it yet.

I have read several biographies of Laura Ingalls Wilder, as well as many of her nonfiction writings, which I also love.

2gmathis
Okt. 21, 2016, 2:05 pm

Oh, my...when I got the entire boxed set for Christmas in grade school, I was giddy! Read and re-read and taped 'em back together, and read some more--usually outside straddling the fork of a cherry tree or on a quilt in the backyard. My favorite of the bunch was Little Town on the Prairie because I liked to hear about the spelling bees and examinations at school.

3MrsLee
Okt. 22, 2016, 2:11 am

>2 gmathis: I never read them until I was an adult. Then my grandmother realized, and bought me the whole set. She adored them because so much reminded her of her childhood. She was born in 1906, in California and her father bought a ranch in La Grand, California about 1912. Mostly desert at that time.

We began with paperbacks, but between my children and I reading them to pieces, I've managed to find most of them in hardcover versions.

4Sakerfalcon
Okt. 23, 2016, 5:14 am

I love the Little House books. I can remember finding the first one in the classroom at primary school when I was about 7 and asking for the rest of the series for subsequent birthdays and Christmases. My favourite as a child was The long winter because I loved the tension of wondering how long the cold would persist and seeing Laura play such a key role in helping her family. Now my favourites are Little town and These happy golden years because I love the courtship between her and Almanzo. I also liked following her career as a schoolteacher. I still enjoy the books no matter how often I retread them.

5gmathis
Okt. 23, 2016, 8:40 am

Even as a kid, I remember being somewhat scandalized at the liberties the TV show took with the storylines. Some things you just can't improve.

6Marissa_Doyle
Okt. 23, 2016, 10:21 am

I started reading them in grade school as well, and still re-read the whole series every few years. I've also been fascinated by the recent bios of LIW and Rose Wilder Lane.

7MrsLee
Okt. 25, 2016, 9:41 am

When I first read them, I thought they were biographical, I mean not novelized. It was a bit of a shock for me when I first learned they weren't, but then my expectations adjusted and I marveled at how someone could take their life and get such heartwarming stories from it.

I've been reading heavily from my shelves of TBR books this year, but I feel the lack of comforting rereads. I may have to take a month or two next year for only rereads. Too many treasures on my shelves to let them just sit.

8Sakerfalcon
Okt. 26, 2016, 6:58 am

Coincidentally, I just found a copy of Laura Ingalls Wilder Country at a charity shop. I will enjoy looking at the photos of the places where Laura lived and travelled before I next reread the books.

9jnwelch
Nov. 3, 2016, 4:02 pm

My wife and I are reading these out loud in order, neither of us having read them as children. We're having a great time, and are amazed how vivid she makes the details of living in that time. Right now we're in the middle of By the Shores of Silver Lake.

10BonnieJune54
Nov. 3, 2016, 10:05 pm

>9 jnwelch: I loved her description of the train ride. How she walked in the moving train and was fascinated by the seeming movement of the wires on the poles was described particularly well.

11jnwelch
Nov. 4, 2016, 2:09 pm

>10 BonnieJune54: Yes, that was a great scene. We're at the point in the book where they've just arrived at the railroad camp.

12SilverKitty
Nov. 7, 2016, 8:40 am

Read, re-read, re-re-read (you get the idea!) these books as a child. I wanted to BE Laura Ingalls Wilder when I grew up. I grew up in South Dakota so the prairie descriptions were familiar to me.

Didn't pick them up again for decades, then read them to my daughter when she was old enough. Familiar and yet completely different from the adult perspective. There are a lot of events in the book that could have killed them all (like when the family has malaria, or during the long winter when they are basically starving) but the adults "keep calm and carry on" and the family gets through it.

Love the Laura Ingalls Wilder books.

13MDGentleReader
Dez. 12, 2016, 6:28 pm

Has anyone else read the series going back by generation following the distaff side from little girl to young woman? Laura's mother Caroline, Caroline's mother Charlotte to Charlotte's mother Martha as a little girl in Scotland. There are also books about Laura's daughter Rose covering a similar time period.

The Caroline Years
The Charlotte Years
The Martha Years

The Rose Years

14fuzzi
Dez. 20, 2016, 5:59 pm

>13 MDGentleReader: nope, though I started reading the Rose "Rocky Ridge" books, that take place after the trek to Missouri. The author, Roger Lea MacBride, was a friend of Rose, and I thought he did a good job.

I'm one of those who did not discover the Little House books until after my childhood, maybe reading them in my teens. My favorites are the Silver Lake books, with The Long Winter my most favorite. I have read and reread these books many, many times.

15MDGentleReader
Dez. 21, 2016, 1:29 pm

As a person, I liked Martha the best, so I guess those are my favorite. I thought that the various authors did a really good job of capturing the spirit of the original series. It is also interesting in seeing how the girl is the mother to the woman - how the traits of Caroline the mother show up in her as a little girl. I thought Charlotte had the hardest life, everything is done in an age appropriate manner, but as an adult I can read between the lines. I think that you would enjoy them and they have been around enough that used copies can probably be found. Can you believe that some folks feel they outgrow these books? Me, neither ;).

16fuzzi
Dez. 21, 2016, 3:45 pm

>15 MDGentleReader: there are very few books that I "outgrow"!

17marell
Jan. 15, 2017, 1:26 am

I didn't read the Little House on the Prairie books until I was an adult. Years ago when my boys were small I read three or four of them out loud to them and we enjoyed them very much. Then I read them all in 2015, a wonderful experience. My favorite was The Long Winter.

I have read A Wilder Rose. Although in novel form, I believe it was well-researched by the author. It does come through that the author, Ms. Albert, is crazy about Rose Wilder Lane and her accomplishments as a writer and a person, but not so much about Laura. I thought it was a well-written, interesting story.

18hearthlit
Feb. 7, 2017, 5:35 pm

Happy 150th birthday to Laura!

19Marissa_Doyle
Feb. 7, 2017, 6:09 pm

Very interesting article in the New York Times today on LIW: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/books/review/little-house-laura-ingalls-wilde...

20Sakerfalcon
Feb. 8, 2017, 7:36 am

>19 Marissa_Doyle: That is fascinating, Marissa. Thank you for sharing it!

21MrsLee
Feb. 8, 2017, 10:00 am

>19 Marissa_Doyle: Hmmm, I don't swallow the conclusions in that article whole; not having time at the moment to evaluate it all.

Having read some of her journalistic endeavors in Little House in the Ozarks, and grown up in a very rural farm area with grandparents who were of Laura's generation, or close to it (yes, they were in their 90s when I knew them and they or their parents had been pioneers crossing the prairies), some of the conclusions in that article are sound, but others not so much IMO.

22BonnieJune54
Feb. 8, 2017, 1:04 pm

>19 Marissa_Doyle: I think it is interesting that people tend to see their own values reflected in the books.

23LorisBook
Jul. 22, 2017, 4:20 pm

I am a fan of te Little House on the Prarie series.
In September, 'The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Frontier Landscapes that Inspired the Little House Books', by Marta McDowell, will be published. I read the ARC and enjoyed the detailing of her travels across country. The writing is also teamed with photos, illustrations, drawings and clippings from newspapers of Laura's lifetime.

24fuzzi
Jul. 22, 2017, 7:48 pm

>23 LorisBook: I won a copy too, and really enjoyed it!