Customer Reviews

Little House in the Big Woods Book and Charm (Charming Classics)

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

 

 

I was totally surprised by this wonderful little story. My wife is reading it out loud to our kindergartener and tonight I couldn't find my own book...so when they went to bed, I picked it up. I didn't put it down until I was finished. Really, really good tale of childhood and the all-importance of good parenting.

My six year old daughter and I are reading this book together. Building her attention was easier than I thought, with this book. After the first five pages she wanted to keep reading. Eighteen pages later she was dying to draw a picture of what had happened. This book really reminds me of what the purpose of families are all about. Every page describes what "Ma" or "Pa" was doing to take care of the family. The daughters found joy in every simple, hard or enduring task that had to be undertaken to produce a family of early American prairie days. This book uses simple words and descriptions to help build my 6 year olds attention. As well as, random sketched pictures throughout to excite the children's imagination. This has been more than a school assignment, but an excuse to spend real time with my daughter.

My sons love this story. When our old book was too torn-up to read I ordered this copy. I didn't receive any discount off the list price through Amazon, but the fiddle charm necklace was a nice touch. My 4 year-old was so excited about it. He wore it until the chain broke!

This is a classic that has been read by generations of readers. It is the beginning of Laura Ingalls Wilder's tales of frontier life. Set in the "Big Woods" of Wisconsin in the 1870s, the story is told from the point of view of five-year-old Laura, the middle sister of three, who lives with her parents in a log cabin where her father earns his living as a trapper.

Wilder describes life in the 1870s in painstaking detail that keeps the story interesting without ever bogging down the pacing. The story takes the reader through a year in the life of the family, from the harvest and storing of food for the winter, through the Christmas celebrations, and the playful days of summer.

All of the family's work and play is described, with the occasional tall tale from Pa Ingalls, often told with a lesson in mind for the girls. The cycle of the year forms the structure and plot of the story, although the central conflict involves Laura's struggle with her jealous feelings toward her older sister.

There is humor and tenderness spread throughout the story, as well as a constant subtle tension as the reader is reminded of how fragile life on the frontier can be. The family has only themselves to rely on. Neighbors and relatives are distant, and the nearest town is far enough away that they only make one trip to town in a year. The story does not dance around the realities of hunting and raising animals for food. In fact, the first chapter is devoted mostly to the butchering of the family's hog.

Wilder's talent for description makes this an educational story, but her considerable skills as a storyteller give us characters that we care about as they live their lives in the Big Woods.

My mom read this series to me when I was young, and I've held a soft spot for them ever since. So, it was wonderful to read them again as an adult and find Laura Ingalls Wilder's writing just as intriguing, captivating, fascinating and beautifully sweet!

Laura is only about three years old here, and the story centers around one year in her life. In addition to Laura there is her older sister Mary, and Ma, Pa, and Baby Carrie.

The first thing that struck me upon rereading this was how "slow" it initially seemed. Compared to all the middle-grade action/adventure books I typically read and love, here, all we really talked about was food and food preparation. And yet, after a few pages I realized I was somehow completely sucked in and really wanted to know just how things were done then. In chapters that follow things get more exciting - there are bear encounters, trips to town (can you imagine having never seen a town, never having seen even two houses together before?), cougars, bee attacks, harvests and even a dance at Grandma and Grandpa's where everyone gets dressed in their finest!

I was also amazed at how many things had stayed with me from just one reading years and years ago! Vivid images and recollections of scenes that obviously intrigued me to know end - and, frankly, still do! The maple sugar sweets, for one!)

Laura Ingalls Wilder never uses a big vocabulary, so her books can appeal to a huge age range! And even with the limited vocabulary, she's somehow always so descriptive and you get a real sense for how each character feels and what they believe. This, in combination with the wonderful illustrations by Garth Williams is like a very clear window into life in the Big Woods.

After the first few chapters, once I got into the flow of the story, I found myself wanting to constantly pick up the book and read the next chapter. There are so many fantastic stories, too, and there are wonderful messages on practically each page. The messages are never heavy hitting, but they are there simply in the way the story unfolds. Everything from self-reliance, responsibility, hard work, sharing, caring, listening, truthfulness, progress, respect, even environmentalism! It sounds all quite boring laid out like this, but these characteristics are woven into exciting stories in Laura's life or tales her Pa tells her of him as a boy or family.

It's very clear how much Laura loves her family, and the insights she brings to the book - to life - are incredible and touching!

I love this book so much it's hard for me to write a good review of it, but I hope you'll pick it up, give it a few chapters to adjust to the pace, and then become just as captivated as I was - and fall just as much in love.

I bought this book for my 9 year old step sister. It was the first of my favorite book series when I was her age, and I hope she enjoys it as much as I did. :)
The book was in perfect condition, shrink wrapped, and I like that it came with the little fiddle charm necklace.

I started reading these when I was 9. The TV series made the books even more popular, however, the TV series goes off on its own and sometimes has NOTHING to do with the original book series penned by Laura Ingals Wilder, which is why I sometimes have a problem with the TV series. Hollywood tends to glorify and romanticize the books they base their shows on and tends to veer from the original story. Before the books I wasn't even sure if the Little House stories were real and I think a lot of people didn't think so either.
Laura rightfully deserves all the credit for the series. I think some people think Michael Landon did the whole series but it is really Laura's. Don't get me wrong, I loved Michael Landon, however, I have a problem when people don't give credit where credit is due and I wonder if Laura would object to some of the TV episodes...not that they are awful, its just that I think when they stray from fact to fiction it is tampering with history and classics. I think if they weren't going to follow the books, they should have called the TV series something different other than Laura's Little House. No doubt it had lots of people confused.
I love Garth Williams' illustrations, I hope they never change Laura's writings or his illustrations. Never change the cover illustrations by Williams, either. No one else can do the Ingalls and Wilders justice!!
Also I love Pa's stories. This book is jam-packed full of charm and excitement.

Little House in the Big Woods is one of my Top 10 favorite books. This is a wonderful book, and it's a true story, too (only the start of the Little House books which are all really great). I first read it when I was 7 years old and still read it very often. I love the good old-fashioned-y stuff and the nice, wonderful simple life they have. Some of my favorite stuff was the way she describes the food they store for the winter and how they prepare the venison,when they play in the attic and how they use pumpkins for chairs, Christmas - when their cousins come over and they play in the snow and also make shapes with maple on snow and then eat it when she gets her cute rag doll Charlotte and the candies they get, the dance at Grandpa's where she watches her aunts get ready for the party and they have the dance and the jigs and music and food and cousins, and also when they go to town.
You should definitely buy this book!!!

My granddaughter's copy of this book was damaged by a leaking roof. She was very happy to get this book as she has all of the Little House books; the charm was an added bonus she loved. She is ten.

There's a reason why the Little House books are considered American classics. These books are a very simple look at frontier life through the eyes of a little girl. Readers who enjoy a history lesson without a lecture will enjoy LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS as Laura Ingalls Wilder describes what life was like growing up in the wilderness of Wisconsin's "big woods" in the 1870's.