Customer Reviews

A Little House Collection: The First Five Novels

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

 

 

When I first mooted to my seven year old boy the idea that I would read aloud to him stories about a pioneer family from the 1870s--a family with three girls, no boys, at that--he wanted nothing to do with it. I told him, "Let me read just the very first chapter of the first book, and if you don't like it, we'll stop." Well, at the end of the first chapter of "Little House in the Big Woods," he was hooked. We went right through all these, and he's eager to go on to the others.

These are excellent stories for intelligent boys and girls because, among other things, they explain how things work, how life was conducted without benefit of electricity or almost all the comforts of modern life we take for granted--imagine camping on a permanent basis--and how a family with next to nothing by our standards is still full of joy and love.

Laura Ingalls Wilders' writing is brilliantly spare with no-nonsense descriptions, and Garth Williams' drawings are simple yet immensely helpful. Not only do I recommend these highly, I'd go so far as to say that our society would be better off if these were read to every American child growing up today.

Postscript: Why the first five in a collection? Four of them concern Laura Ingalls as a child, one is about her future husband, Almanzo Wilder, as a boy. They are told mostly from the perspective of a child and retain an innocence. In the sixth book, The Long Winter, Laura is in her early teens, and the themes are certainly sober, even dark at times, as the book is a narrative of a winter in which the family very nearly starves. The remaining volumes deal with Laura as she struggles to obtain an education and teacher's certificate, starts courting and gets married, and has her own family. So there's a natural break between these first five and the rest.

For those looking for a nice reading collection of the Little house books, this is a great start. One large book containing the first 5 novels in the little house series.

The illustrations are somewhat sparse, but well done. The writing of course is unchanged from the original books. It's very nice to have them all in one large book, but I wish they had all been included - as of this time I'm unable to find a similar such collection for the remaining 4 books.

The text size is generous and the two column format is easy to read with kids clustered around.

My children and I love this book. I grew up watching Little House on The Prairie when I was little and wanted to share this delightful experience with them. They both enjoy the unfolding tale, particularly my 7 year old. She is eager for tomorrow and the next episode! There is great attention to detail in the writing, yet there is a feeling of it being easy to read and take in.

I got this for my daughter when she was five and we read from it each night at bedtime. A great story for little ears.

My kids truely cannot get enough of this book! We have read it at least 4x's and are starting it again. Almost enough to make me want to hide the book. :) It is large in size but manageable. Our cover is now tearing off but this has been in constant use since its purchase two years ago and has seen some rough use. I especially like the extra pictures that are throughout the book. (Maybe one extra per book - but that is twice the number in the other books.) If you have not read these books before please realize that when reading to the very young you will need to "edit" as you read some chapters concerning the Native Americans mentioned. Please don't let this deter you from the book purchase however as it is a WONDERFUL book.