Customer Reviews

The Complete Little House Nine-Book Set

5 star:		(202)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I received my Little House box set MANY, MANY years ago for Christmas, and it sat on my shelf, a treasure waiting to be fully discovered, for the better part of 2 decades. As an English major, I've spent many hours with Shakespeare, Jane Austen, the Brontes, Edith Wharton, and scores of other wonderful writers. Then one day, my best friend told me that she was reading "Little House in the Big Woods" to her 1st grade class, and that, to a child, boys and girls alike were mezmerized during story time - she'd never seen them pay such good attention.

That was all it took. One Sunday morning, I walked up to the attic, and brought down my set. Since then, I've read straight through them, often into the wee hours of the morning. The writing is outstanding (it actually becomes more grown up right along with the characters), and of course the love story is beautiful, but this series has much more to offer its readers - young and old. For one, you get a much deeper sense of how generations before us struggled, toiled really, to make this country what it is today. And the sense of family is amazing, particularly as Laura becomes old enough to live away from home and realize just how wonderful her family is.

Every child should read them. Better yet, every family should read them aloud, together. I certainly plan to read them aloud to my kids.

I got "Little House in the Big Woods" when I was 7. I remember crying when I finished it because I wanted the story to go on and on. I pushed and prodded my Mom to get the rest of the books. As quickly as they appeared as birthday and Christmas presents, I devoured them. Almost 35 years later, I can say that I have read almost every book that has been written by or about Laura.

Many other reviewers have pointed out the especially wonderful aspects of the books. The narrator ages as Laura grows up. (What a cool concept!) The story of 4 year old Laura's Christmas in Wisconsin is as real and moving as the description of 18 year old Laura falling in love with Almanzo in Dakota Territory. The images are always fresh, and the stories always epitomize wholesomeness. There is a consistency all the way through "These Happy Golden Years" that shows that great care and skill were employed to make the series unwaveringly good.

The real life of Laura was strenuous and uncertain. She was poor most of her young life. She and Almanzo faced great loss and always worked very hard to run their farm. The many moves made by the Ingalls and Wilder families were made to escape difficulties like failed crops or to improve bad situations like poor health. According to available accounts, Laura did not stay in close contact with her family after she left Dakota. Her relationship with Almanzo does not seem to have been remarkable, and her relationship with her only child, Rose, was strained.

However, all of these mundane details coalesced to create some of the best books ever written. Many readers do not know that Rose was the impetus for the Little House phenomenon. She became a writer first, and she saw how she could help her mother to take the story of her life and turn it into beautiful literature. There is controversy about how much Rose helped. Some say that she was a full fledged ghost writer. In any case, it is safe to say that the Little House series was a mother/daughter collaborative effort.

A talented mother and daughter turned the memories of a difficult, pioneering life into books that I could not put down. I read and re-read them until they became part of my life experience. I know that I am one of many for whom the experience made me love reading more, made me wonder more about how other people in other times lived, made me see how good people lived in the world, and made me more alive in some way. I cannot say enough good things about these books.

Every child should read them, and every adult should read them again!

I always wanted to read these books, but I never did as a child. I am now 27 and I am totally enthralled by this series. I have always been an avid watcher of the TV series, but I feel you get a more intimate look at Laura and the Ingalls through the novel. I enjoy how the descriptions in the stories actually make you feel like your are traveling with the Ingalls. Whether you are 8 or 88 these books help you understand the beginning of our nation. They remind you of what family, loyalty, respect, and responsiblity mean. I can not wait to share these with my nieces and someday my children. What a wonderful way to spend time, traveling on a voyage with Laura Ingalls Wilder.

One of the biggest fallacies about the Little House books is that they are "girls' books." It was that perception of the books, as well as the sappy, smaltzy "Little House on the Prairie" TV show, that kept me from reading these books until I was in my early teens. One day just out of sheer boredom, I read my sister's worn copy of "Little House in the Big Woods." What a great book! A story of a family's survival in the wilderness with tales of bears, panthers, wolves, hunting, and all sorts of neat information on how pioneer people lived. "Little House in the Big Woods" erased my conception of the Little House books as "girlie stuff" and I promptly read the rest of the series.

Yes, some elements will appeal more to girls especially Mrs. Wilder's very detailed descriptions of women's clothing. (I generally just read what color the dress was and then skip over the rest of the description.) However, her stories about Indians, wild animals, blizzards, grasshopper storms, bandits, bullies threatening to beat up teachers, unruly students, unhinged farmwives, bossy older sisters, and a whole host of other great stuff will make these books fascinating to anyone interested in pioneer life regardless of gender.

Despite my age I still consider these among my favorite books. They are truly heartwarming classics with the magnificent illustrations of Garth Williams. Laura, the main character, will appeal to almost anyone- honest, principled, courageous, industrious, but with very human elements- including envy of her older sister and holding grudges, especially against snooty Nellie Oleson and her teacher (and future sister-in-law) Eliza Jane Wilder. The books are also a tribute to her father, Charles Ingalls, who emerges as a truly great man and father. A hard-working man upon whom fortune did not always smile, but always was able to remain unbowed regardless of misfortune. He was also a strict disciplinarian, who did not believe in sparing the rod, but also a truly loving father, who would do anything for his girls. Charles Ingalls, as seen through the eyes of his daughter, is a man worthy of any reader's respect.

For those who see images of Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert when they hear the words, "Little House," please give the books a chance. They are really nothing like the TV series. Although Laura Ingalls Wilder infused her books with a great deal of sentimentality- they never descend into the maudlin syrup that was the hallmark of the TV series. One example of how different they truly are would be how they represented how Mary, Laura's older sister, lost her eyesight. In "On the Shores of Silver Lake" Laura describes how scarlet fever robbed her sister of her sight, but also proudly describes how that tragedy never brought Mary to tears. Mary always remained "patient and brave." In contrast, the TV show has Mary wailing, moaning, and carrying on until her family ships her off to a school for the blind. (In the books, Mary does eventually go to a college for the blind, but only after years of being an important and valuable member of the family despite her disability.) Once again, the Little House series is a perfect example of the books being vastly superior to any TV or film conversion.

I got my first set of Little House Books when I was 8. I read through all of them from start to finish and loved everyone of them. One day while surfing Amazon's site, I found out the series was continued with Laura's daughter Rose. So here I am, 24, running to the childrens section buying the whole new series. I was so happy that someone took the time to expand the books I almost cried. I always had wondered what happened to the Ingalls/Wilder family. My 16 year old, dog eared copies of the original series will go with my brand new Rose books, to my daughter someday. They are on my bookshelf!

I remember my teacher recommending these books for summer reading as a nine year old boy about 25 years ago. At first, I thought they would be "girls-only" reading. Am I glad I read "Little House in the Big Woods". These are incredible stories of adventure, happiness, joy, sorrow and the like. They often made me think of how families sustained daily life in the harsh American plains alomst 150 years ago. I am not a huge fan of fantasy literature; these stories could well have been typical life for so many families living on the frontier. I purchased this box set for my son as well as my niece and can't wait for them to experience this wonderful American journey!! Kids (or adults, for that matter) won't want to put these book down!!

My first book that I ever remember having read was Little House in the Big Woods. For Christmas, my father gave me the collection when I was three years old and we read them together until I was old enough to read them myself. The dog-eared copies I own have been read countless times and I look forward to someday reading these stories to my own children. The collection not only tells Laura's story but of her future husband and her sisters in a realistic and colorful manner. The pictures are drawn with attention to detail and the stories are priceless. To own this collection is to own a piece of history few of us know about. It is indeed the perfect collection to grow up with.

I have been reading these books since I don't know how long and have been revisiting them again as I look for material to read my daughter. These are timeless wonderful novels. I remember the fascination with frontier and pioneer life of America when I was alittle girl. Reading them as an adult I am always charmed and interested in them.

Laura's writing is wonderful - it is packed with details not just of how they lived life, but how they made things - the recipes, the way they lit fires, made button lamps, beds, and everything. The writing is so vibrant and colourful it leaps off the page. It is wonderful that books are so transportable.

Of all the books the two I love best are Little House on the Prarie and On the Shores of Silver Lake. I think because they seemed the most hopeful and the most detailed (of all very very detailed books).

If you haven't read these then buy the whole set - they really are compelling reading, and for all the fuss about Harry Potter (which I enjoy immensely) I love these more, they are pure humanity.

If memory serves me correctly, I discovered Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books around the age of seven. I do remember being the envy of my third-grade classmates when I received the entire boxed set AND "On The Way Home" for Christmas. Of course, newer generations only know Laura from the TV series, which, as an earlier reviewer remarked, was the epitome of schmalzy, rose-glassed views of pioneer life, but interestingly enough included some real incidents Laura never put in the books (the death of the baby brother and living in the hotel). The books, however, still stand the test of time. True, some of the harsher elements of frontier life are glossed over to an extent--these are books aimed at kids, after all--but overall the books are an fascinating study of life on the prairie in the post-Civil War years. Much like Harry Potter, the Little House books can be read and enjoyed by adults. My only quibble with the books is that I've always felt that there should have been another book between "On The Banks of Plum Creek" and "On The Shores of Silver Lake," since there's a jump of about five years between the two. According to some of Laura's biographers, however, Laura's family had some rough experiences during that time, so that might explain the lack.

Still, there's a reason these books are classics--the descriptions are top-notch, they're moralistic without smacking you over the head, and they're just plain fun to read. I still have the boxed set (not the same one I got for Christmas, alas), and on snowy days in my own little house I find myself curled up in front of the fire with "Farmer Boy" or "These Happy Golden Years." Enjoy!

Definitely five stars. I've lost count of how many I have read these books -- 8? 9? 10? Some I have read more times than others; "These Happy Golden and Years" and "Little House in the Woods", namely. The former I have recently revisited, and was, maybe for the first time, invaded by a profound sense of appreciation for the security with which Laura and her family approached their dilemmas. The Laura Ingalls series is about people who never hesitated to do what was right, and the modern-day reader will benefit greatly from the contact with such people. Children will be enthralled by the fairy-tale world described by this gifted writer; teenagers will be amazed at how different -- and yet how similar -- things were back then; and grown-ups will smile warmly at the recollections these books will evoke, and nod approvingly to the lessons they bring. I am forever thankful to Laura Ingalls Wilder, who let me into her home and her dreams and helped shape my own.