Customer Reviews

On the Banks of Plum Creek CD (Little House-the Laura Years)

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a thirty one year old man, I don't suppose I'm the target audience for the "Little House on the Prairie" series. But after reading this book on a whim, I have to say that I'm hooked.

Laura Ingalls and her family eke out a difficult living on the plains of Minnesota during the time of pioneers and native americans. They are a tightknit family focused on doing the right thing, but their closeness and morality are severely challenged by the harshness of prairie life. They battle floods, drought, fires, blizzards, and insect infestations, all while trying to earn enough money to work toward a better life. Laura and her sister Mary have their first experiences with church and with school, and have to try to fit in as country bumpkins among more street-smart peers (most notably the obnoxious and relatively rich Nellie Oleson).

I found this book to be very charming. The unrelenting goodness of the entire Ingalls family is a bit tiresome at times, but the unflagging earnestness with which it is portrayed won me over, and I soon found myself completely invested in their happiness. The fact that they are happy with so little is refreshing, especially when viewed against the backdrop of modern times. The fact that it took place so long ago, and in such a harsh setting, actually made the good-hearted characters seem more believable.

But what really sells this book is the authentic portrayal of the way of life that the Ingalls' live. Living in a dugout by a creek, cutting the grass to make hay, and knitting clothes during long and dreary days; the book's colorful details make a practically-extinct lifestyle come alive. In particular, the way that the Ingalls must observe nature and learn to live within the context of it's rhythms and cycles was very interesting.

I watched the television show occasionally, and am surprised that this book is the first mention of Nellie Oleson, or the titular house, or some of the other storylines that were such staples on the show. I look forward to reading the other books and learning more about the elements that were not so prominently displayed.

One warning that I have is to avoid reading the back cover of the book. In six short sentences, it manages to spoil the single biggest plot twist in the book, which doesn't come until 200 pages in. Just pick it up and start reading, and you'll be happier for it.

Usually when I review children's books, I struggle with how to address elements that parents may not want to expose their children to. But in this case, happily, there's no conflict. Everything is not only G-rated, but blissfully so.

This book is both joyful and heartbreaking. As a child I spent hours acting out the story with my dolls...the oxen, the horses named Sam and David, the little church in town, the nice girls and the snobby girls in school, the flags and rushes on the creek, the horrible grasshoppers and Pa's being away for so long while he went to find work....This is a very detailed, gripping story that really makes time fly. I loved it best of all the books in the series, and I really liked them all!

No one can really explain the hardships and wonders of movingwest in the 1800s, or what it was like.After reading all the LittleHouse books I find this one the best one of the series. The books takes on from the previous book(Little House On The Parrie), as the Ingall's family moves out to Minnisota, where they buy land and a place called home. There home is very near Plum Creek and three miles to town. As they lived together, they face fears, hope, blizzards and locus,and learn that disasters won't destroy them. This story grabed me and made me go into the book and made me expierenced the story with them.

Laura and her family have moved to a small farm near Walnut Grove in Minnesota. They will have to adapt to Minnesota, the sod house, and a lot more. Laura Ingalls is a seven year old girl who loves to explore the creek, and is daddies little angel. Laura lives with her Ma, Pa , her two sisters Marry and Carrie, and their loyal companion and bulldog Jack. Pa goes out to get lumber and builds a beautiful new house with windows and he farms wheat to earn money. One day Pa said that in a couple weeks the wheat would soon be ready to pick. Then they see this peculiar sparkling cloud that filled the sky. Shortly after countless numbers of grasshoppers cover the field, the creek, and the rest of the farm, including Laura and her family. The grasshoppers consumed every plant including the wheat that Pa worked so hard to grow.
Mary and Laura start to go to school and on their first day they met many friends and some foes. one of their rivals was named Nellie who had a party and invited all the girls from school. Nellie was very rude and very cruel to Mary and Laura. Laura decided to have a party as well, and invited all the girls from school. Laura invites Nellie particulary to get back at her, and boy did she do a clever and a funny prank on Nellie. Then the Ingalls experienced blizzards, storms, and prairie fires which were very devastating. After all the work the family put into the farm and the wheat, their work finally payed off.
This book had lots of surprising, unpredictable, and very exciting events. If I could rate this book on a scale of one through ten, I would give this book a ten. Once I started to read this book I couldn't put it down, because I was so hooked on it. This book is fantastic and is great for every age, and great for every age, and should be enjoyed by everyone. If your looking for a great book that will excite, delight, suprise, and grasp your attention, On the Banks of Plum Creek is just the book your looking for.

The title of the book I read is On the Banks fo Plum Creek by Laura Ingals Wilder. This book is about Laura Ingalls as she is growing up on the prairie. In this book, Laura and her family travel from Indian Territories to Minnesota in a covered wagon. They settle in a dugout on the banks of Plum Creek. Pa plants a wheat crop and builds a pine board house. He plans to pay back the money for the wood when he sells the wheat. As Pa is ready to harvest the wheat, a terrible thing happens. A huge swarm of hungry locusts comes and eats the wheat. Pa must go away out East to find work and to get money for food, supplies, and to pay back the house. Laura cares about her family and worries a lot about Pa when he is away. Will Pa come home safely? Will they be able to stay at Plum Creek, or will they have to move west?

The characters in this book were interesting and believable. The characters I thought were the most interesting and believable were Laura Ingalls and Nellie Olsen. Laura is the narrator of the story. She is eight years old and when you read this book you will see the story through Laura's eyes. She is likeable because she is nice and not rude, and she cares about her family. She is believable because she behaves well, but is also naughty sometimes. Nellie Olsen is mean, rude, and selfish to Laura and Mary, Laura's sister. Nellie is a believable character because I have met people like her. I thought the characters in the book were interesting and believable.

Laura Ingalls Wilder is a good writer because she is very descriptive and she uses strong words to create images. She makes the descriptions very concrete, but she doesn't make them so detailed they become boring. For example, Moby Dick had way too much detail. Snore (ZZZZ). The author of the book uses strong words to create images. For example, when Laura was near drowning, "The water roared loud and tugged at her stronger and stronger. Laura kicked but the water was stronger than her legs." I felt scared because I thought Laura would be pulled into the raging waters and nobody would know. The author makes the story perfect to read because she has just the right amount of description and the images pop out of the page.

I like this book because it is a fun and exciting story, the characters are good, and the writing is perfect. The story has characters that are interesting and believable. The style of this book is spectacular. The descriptions are concrete, but not boring. Mrs. Wilder uses strong words to make the story come alive and create feeling and mental images. I would recommend this book to girls seven and up because it is a story about girls. Not many boys would like it. However, it is a hard read because there are difficult words in it. For example, "leech" means bloodsucker. I would rate this book five stars. I would recommend this book because it is a fun and exciting story, the characters are good and the writing is perfect.

On The Banks of Plum Creek, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, a five out of five star rating, and memorable classis cheriched by readers for genorations along with the whole series.

The adventures of Laura Ingalls and her family continue as they move from "the little house on the prarie" and travel to Minnessota in their covered wagon. There they move into a dug out beside the banks of Plum Creek. Soon Pa builds a little log house for his family after their first Christmas on their new land. Laura and her sister Mary go to school, fish in the creek and start a whole new life in their home. But mistortune sneaks upon the family when a terrible grasshopper plauge demolishes Pa's crop and he has to travel east on foot to find work. Join Laura and her pioneer family as they overcome their timeless struggles and their unforgetable triumphs.

This whole series was one of my favorite when I was a kid. I still have warm memories over it, and, strangely enough, I'm using it right now in an essay I'm writing in college. I just wanted to tell anyone who's looking at it that this is a very good book, they all are, you should definately buy it.

After "Little Town on the Prairie" - this is my favorite "Little House" book. Actually it was the first "Little House" book I read.
Now the Ingalls family had come to Walnut Grove, Minnesota and for the first time they lived in a dugout, and later on Pa built them a brand new house of lumbers. However, they had a hard time living there. Grasshoppers struck two years in a row and destroyed the crops for 2 years and Pa had to walk 300 miles to get a job in order to pay down the house which he had bought on credit.

As if that wasn't enough, at the end Pa was caught by a blizzard when he walked home from town days before Christmas. They had good and helpful Norwegian neighbors (which made me "proud" since I'm Norwegian), but sadly some of them didn't speak English too well (I know I don't either).

This is the first time, in the book series, Laura starts going to school and meets the mean Nellie Owens (or Nellie Oleson (which you may know from the 1970s TV show), as she was named in the books), which is my favorite part.

I would absolutely recommend the book!

I love Laura Ingalls Wilder as an author. I think her books are interesting and well written. Her descriptions of events, places, people, and time periods cannot be beat and it draws you right in.

At age 43, I've been re-reading some of the books that were important to my childhood. On the Banks of Plum Creek was my favorite of the Little House series, so it seemed like a fitting starting point in the series. Much of the story of the Ingalls family's years on the Minnesota prarie was a warm, familiar homecoming - no doubt because it was replayed in the TV series. Living in a sod dugout while waiting for the new house to be built, playing in the creek, meeting the snooty Nellie Oleson and delivering a dose of come-uppance, attending school and church for the first time. The language is fresh and accessible to the modern reader, with just a few old-timey words like "boughten" (as in "a boughten broom") to remind us that this is a memoir, not a novel. There is also a lot in this book that I can newly appreciate as an adult reader: Pa encourages Laura's first day at school by telling her that not everyone gets the opportunity (as perhaps he did not?). When the crops are wiped out, just before the harvest, Pa walks a remarkable 300 miles East to find work harvesting other farmers' crops. Ma's worry grows palpably as no letters are received from Pa. Pa's carpentry skills and ingenuity are on display throughout as he builds their house (with real glass windows!) and various gadgets. Laura is unable to communicate with her Norwegian neighbors, and Pa comments at one point that the Ingalls family has never lived among their "own kind." There is much that can be criticized in the narrative too: Caroline's dialog mostly consists of "Oh, Charles", the foreshadowing is less than subtle (how many times can Pa say "When the wheat crop comes in..."?), and all crises are handled with a reassuring "we'll get by somehow." (One wonders what Ma and Pa said to each other when the kids were asleep). Still, a lovely book that was well worth rediscovering as an adult.