The Laura Ingalls Wilder Songbook: Favorite Songs from the Little House Books [Hardcover]

Eugenia Garson (Editor), Garth Williams (Illustrator), Herbert Haufrecht (Contributor)

Book Description

Encompassing folk songs, hymns, dance songs, and ballads, a collection of musical scores, arranged for piano and guitar, gather the songs that were played on Pa's fiddle and were most enjoyed by Laura and her sisters.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books (February 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060270365
• ISBN-13: 978-0060270360
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,749,382 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative, with easy-to play arrangements., May 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Laura Ingalls Wilder Songbook : Favorite Songs from The Little House Books (Library Binding)

Being both a musician and a fan of the "Little House" books, I saw this at the Laura Ingalls Wilder house in Mansfield, MO, in 1977, and simply had to have it (thanks, Mom and Dad!). Each song features a brief (2-3 sentences) background on the composer, as well as the context of its literary appearance in the series. The songbook is a wonderful supplement to the series, and NO, my copy is not for sale! :)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Singing and fiddling on the prairie!, April 4, 2011

By 

John Gough "John Gough - Deakin University" (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Laura Ingalls Wilder Songbook: Favorite Songs from the Little House Books (Paperback)

Laura Ingalls Wilder's sequence of autobiographical memoirs (I am reluctant to describe them as "novels", despite being aware of the occasional fictional liberties Laura took in telling her stories) are among the greatest books of the Twentieth century, precisely because she captures the period, location, life and people so vividly.
From the early pages of "The Little House in the Big Woods", food (its gathering and cooking) is an everyday focus: readers who find the "Little House on the Prairie Cookbook" can happily explore the down-to-earth home-cooked recipes of Laura and her family.
Equally, from those early pages, Pa with his fiddle, and the family singing folksongs and hymns and other popular ditties, is another everyday focus.
Anyone who reads the Ingalls Wilder books to another person -- adult or child (and this is one of life's great pleasure, to SHARE the "Little House" books) -- ought to be able to hum or whistle or sing what the book can only name or quote with unmusical words.
Hooray for the "Song Book" that provides the music, and words, and a snippet of explanatory background for each item.
Some great books are enhanced by scholarly Prefaces, or Notes, or, better yet, by richly informative annotations on details that bring the book all the more deeply to life.
The "Little House on the Prairie" COOKBOOK and SONGBOOK go beyond simple scholarly annotation (valuable though that would be!), yet they serve a very similar purpose.
There are, I believe, audio CDs of some of the "Little House on the Prairie" music. Good as these CDs may be, they present only one way of conceiving the music, and at best they let you sing along.
Having the printed music allows readers to personally recreate a key component of the "Little House" experience.
(I am reminded of the way the Burl Ives character in the Disney film "So Dear to My Heart" -- originally a novel by Stirling North, and surprisingly similar in many ways to E.B. White's "Charlotte's Web", but earlier than "Charlotte" -- would spontaneously sing folk songs as a natural commentary and entertainment. This use of music comes from an earlier era, but one that has much in it to value, and emulate.)
John Gough -- Deakin University -- [e-mail]

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If You Read Laura's Books..., May 6, 2011

By 

BeckyD - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Laura Ingalls Wilder Songbook: Favorite Songs from the Little House Books (Paperback)

If you read Laura Ingalls Wilders (and even Rose Wilder Lane's) books, you MUST have this companion songbook. ESPECIALLY if you read the books out loud to your children. Laura's life was filled with the music her father fiddled and sang to and you cannot read her story without singing these songs. Besides, these songs are part of the history of our country and I think it's great that we have a lovely record of these songs to pass on to the next generation.