Customer Reviews

The Little House Guidebook

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The Little House Guidebook is filled with the museums, houses and visitors sights about the legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family.

Beautiful, accurate photography amazes your eyes as any fan dreams of visiting each and every place. The first photo on the page dedicated to Walnut Grove, only 45 minutes from my hometown, is exactly how it looks today. A large sign just uphill from Plum Creek states where the sod house was.

Thanks to this wonderful book, our family knew all the best places to visit, shop at, and devour historical facts of. It even led us right to the church bell Pa had given his last three dollars for. We'll use it again on all our future adventures.

This book was well researched, written and photographed. It glorifies my Little House ongoing collection.

If you are a fan, or know someone who is, this book would be a fabulous gift, just as it was given to me for my birthday.

William Anderson has done a fabulous job in painstakingly documenting everything there is to see from New York to South Dakota that has anything to do with Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" series. Ever wondered what happened to Pa's fiddle? Or if the house dug out from the banks of Plum Creek is still intact? This book has the answers. Complete with color photographs, addresses, phone numbers and maps, as well as ample background information, The Little House Guidebook is a must have for Little House fans everywhere. Even if you never get to visit these places, this book will take you there.

We used this book to plan our May trip to Kansas and Missouri. The directions were accurate and the information definitely added to our trip. We stayed at the Rosewood B&B (in the book, Kansas) and had a good time. This book is a must for any Laura Ingalls Wilder fan!

If you grew up reading the "Little House" books and wonder if all of Laura's homes are still in existence and how they look, then look no further than this glossy guidebook. Although many of the Ingalls' early cabins have been reconstructed within the past 20 years (in Wisconsin & Kansas, for example) you can see from these photos what the Kansas prairies, the Dakota plains and the former Big Woods look like. Laura's home in Mansfield, MO is still standing and so is the last Ingalls home in De Smet, SD (which Pa built after Laura married and moved out) and Manly's childhood home in Malone, NY... Lori M. Sampson

I read a number of the Little House books recently, and when I finished I was fired up to learn more about Laura and her family. Even though I can't plan a trip in the near future to visit the places Laura called home, I loved reading about each spot in THE LITTLE HOUSE GUIDEBOOK.

Each chapter discusses the location of each "little house," including places that Laura lived in but didn't write about. Almanzo Wilder's homes are also included. We see photographs and read descriptions of what each place looks like now, how and when each spot was honored as a Laura Ingalls Wilder historical site, along with suggestions for interesting places to visit and stay.

The first chapter, which deals with "the little house in the big woods" of Pepin, Wisconsin, tells the tale of how Charles and Caroline Ingalls (Laura's parents) were among the earliest settlers of western Wisconsin. One interesting note: the house in the big woods was actually the Ingalls's home twice. The family sold the land once, moving to Kansas. However, the buyer quit making payments and the Ingalls returned. As with many of Laura's little houses, the original cabin is gone but visitors can tour a replica.

The next chapter discusses the setting of LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, near Independence, Kansas. Here we learn more about the land issues between the Native Americans and the settlers, which eventually prompted the Ingalls to leave their prairie home.

The following chapters cover Plum Creek, near Walnut Grove, Minnesota; the Masters Hotel in Burr Oak, Iowa (covered in OLD TOWN IN THE GREEN GROVES, written by Cynthia Rylant); and De Smet, South Dakota (otherwise known as "The Little Town on the Prairie" and also covered in the books BY THE SHORES OF SILVER LAKE, THESE HAPPY GOLDEN YEARS and THE FIRST FOUR YEARS).

Laura and Almanzo eventually moved to the Ozarks in Mansfield, Missouri, where they established Rocky Ridge Farm. Here, visitors can tour their white farmhouse, kept just as the Wilders had it in the 1940s and 1950s, along with the Rock House that daughter Rose had built for Laura and Almanzo in 1928.

Almanzo's houses come next: his boyhood farm home in Malone, New York, still stands and can be toured. Almanzo's parents moved to Spring Valley, Minnesota; although their Minnesota farmhouse is long gone, rabid Wilder fans may want to visit the town museums and the graveyard where Almanzo's brother Royal is buried.

Speaking of fans, THE LITTLE HOUSE GUIDEBOOK is fascinating for Laura's many admirers. It's eye-opening to read about these various locations. The photographs by Leslie A. Kelly are a fine addition, giving readers a view of each area and a peek into how people lived back in Laura's time.

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon

It is best for anyone who plan to travel to all sites of where Laura is born and raise and lived in. I am serious considering to go to some sites myself after read that book. It is great book.

I loved it. A great collection adder! It goes in depth with the places Laura has lived with even the accomadations and such of that particular town. FANTASTIC!

Even if you will not be planning a trip to visit any of the Little House sites, this has a lot of interesting facts that are not in the box set of books.

This book is perfect for the ultimate Little House fan. A guide to all the actual places that Laura lived, what they look like now, and directions on how to go visit many of these places yourself!

This completes my Little House collection of books. The book was like new. No missing, torn or stained pages.