Customer Reviews

Little House in the Big Woods

5 star:		(127)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Life is hard living on the frontier of Wisconsin in the 1870's. Laura is only a little girl, but she still needs to help with chorus around her family's log cabin. There are wild animals in the woods, and they must provide for themselves since the nearest town in hours away. But it's not all hard work. If Pa's not tired, he might entertain his daughters with a story or by playing his fiddle. With family relatively nearby to visit, life is certainly never dull.

I had not read these books since I was a child until picking this up to reread. I had forgotten how entertaining they really are. There is no real plot, just a collection of stories covering a year in the life of the Ingalls family. This makes sense since they really are an autobiographical work. Still, the simple charm of the stories sucked me right in and I had a hard time putting the book down. There is plenty of detail here to give anyone a good picture of daily life during this time. And I must mention the illustrations by Garth Williams that greatly add to the book.

There's a reason these books are so well loved 70 years after they were written. They are an entertaining look at everyday life in a different time and place. This is a book to treasure.

Little House in the Big Woods, written by Laura Ingalls Wilder, was fascinating. I think one of the reasons I liked it so much was because the Ingalls family was so close. One word that comes to mind is cozy. Maybe it's because they lived in a little house in the big woods. Or maybe it's becuase Pa used to play his fiddle by the fireside some evenings for Mary, Laura and Carrie. I remember when I read this book I was interested in the fact that they were pioneers. They might have moved from place to place but they always were positive about it. I loved reading about the three girls dancing at their Grandmother and Grandfather's house and having such a fun time. I remember Laura had a rag doll made out of a corncob that she loved so dearly. And it seemed as though the Ingalls family had such wonderful Christmases. In this book, there was nothing but simplicity. It didn't matter how much they moved or how they lived, as long as the family had each other.

I was in search of a good story to read aloud to my five year old daughter who loves books. To me, the obvious choice was Little House in the Big Woods, a book I associate with my own mother reading to me. This book was a fabulous choice. My daughter and I both looked forward to reading a chapter or two each night. This book sparked her interest in a time long ago, she is now constantly wondering if Laura and Mary had faucets and if they had Barbies. She has learned to appreciate what we have now, while also appreciating the beauty and joy of a simpler life. Laura and Mary are excellent role models for her. While they are children with spirit, they also mind their parents. This book has given her imagination a boost too for we all now pretend to be the Ingalls family. I highly recommend this book (and the rest of the series) to all parents of young children. It is perfect read aloud material for it holds a great story, with many moral lessons for our children.

These are labeled as children's books and children may like or love them. Though in my experience, adults seem to like and appreciate them much more. These are good stories, and they are fascinating. The writing is simple yet articulate and very easy to picture, so they ARE great children's books. All you ever wanted to know about the life of that time period is right here. Okay it's true that these books and the television show that came from it is as much a moral lesson for children as a compelling group of stories.

It's almost like a lesson in respect and courage and family in every chapter of the series, kind of like the show. Though this first book is just a starter, it's mostly about the process of day to day life. I can say be careful to parents that want to read this to children not old enough to read this themselves though. If you are at all cautious of or worried about telling your younger children of certain practices like curing meat or something like that for whatever reason, then this may not be a book to buy. I suggest that if you have any reservations about how your children would react to hearing things like how Laura and Mary used an air filled and tied up pig bladder as a ball [By far the most explicit thing in the book and only mentioned for a paragraph or two] then maybe you should get this book from the library and proof read it first. Remember though this is mostly a nice series it is a dose of reality from a tough time in American history where each person or family had to make what they had and survive off the land if they were in the more unsettled territories. If you do like this book for yourself and or your children, or enjoy the show then you will probably like all the other books as well. They all pretty much come to the same thing - survival, family, respect, learning to get along with others, and hardwork.

In the books to follow, the troubles and every day life can be very surprising, and becomes more about experiences then the process of many daily practices that are in this first book. I personally never watched the show through my childhood out of ill will for anything that reminded me of a hokey television way to teach me something, like alot kids do. I dismissed the show itself as a serious and more lecturing version of the Brady bunch [ nothing against that show, just not my cup of tea.] This is not the Brady Bunch though. The show wasn't the Brady Bunch and neither is the book. Though this is just a woman's memories of being a little girl in a good family, there are some serious life experiences here that anybody can relate to now. The relations between whites and blacks and the American Indians are very clear in the series to follow. It may come across as vague or non existent to a child at times during the series of books, but as an adult you get an appreciation for the way people felt back then, tension and all. Even if you only like this book a little, the series gets better and better. More story, more troubles, more history on the people in it build on each other and develop in a simple but interesting way. It doesn't drag on, or insult anyone's intelligence young or old. This is a fine quick read that is followed up by an even finer read.

P.S. This is definetely not a gender or age specific thing. I Hope this review helped.

Little short stories, that is what Little House in the Big Woods is. Each chapter is a story about the true life Laura Ingalls Wilder, and how her ma taught her and her sisters how to bake and clean and be good children, and how their pa killed animals so that they could have food to eat.

One chapter goes into detail on how after Charles killed a boar, he skinned it, preserved it in salt, and then smoked it in a little smokehouse he had built, no bigger than their outhouse. They used the skins for clothes and shoes, made a little baseball type toy out of the pig's bladder, and fried the tail. It's very educational, if you ask me, which is why, along with the Mandie series of books, I also homeschooled my daughter on Little House in the Big Woods. Every chapter could be read in a short period of time, and each chapter brought a new perspective of what little Laura Ingalls did when she was a little girl.

One chapter is about Sundays, and how they baked and did all their cleaning up on Saturday, because on the Lord's day, Sunday, you were not allowed to do anything at all that was considered work. And believe you me, baking and cleaning up a house is a heavy-duty chore.

Everybody should read this book, and it is highly recommended by me.

The Little House in the Big Woods Have you ever wanted to go back in time? Let Laura Ingalls help you. She wrote about
this family and how they lived in The Little House In the Big Woods. Harvesting,planting, cooking, hunting and sowing are all done manually. They did this all summer.For only a mom,dad a seven and eight year old plus baby Carie that is amazing to me
how they used to work. The two girls are small but don't let that fool you because that seven year old gets into a lot of trouble looking for mystery and adventure.Unlike her sister who never breaks the rules. One of her mystery's is when her father went to town and something happened but I can't tell you what.If you want to find out what happened in this wild cat's mystery, read the book first hand.

I'm a huge fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder and fondly remember reading the Little House books when I was a child. I've just started reading the series to my 7-year-old daughter, though, and while she loved Little House on the Prairie, she was far less fond of this one. In fact, although she's usually a good listener, I found her attention constantly wandering as we read this book.

And in all honesty, I could understand why. Laura Ingalls Wilder is without a doubt one of the best children's writers who ever lived, but I think she had barely begun to show her enormous talent when she wrote this book. Although there are wonderful little snippets of family life, and a few hints of the conflicts between the feisty Laura and her more reserved and perfect sister Mary, the truth is, there isn't much of a plot here. And Mrs. Wilder goes on for page after page describing how bullets were made, or butter churned. There are probably children who find that fascinating, God bless them, but my daughter was just bored by it.

I don't think this is a BAD book, but Little House on the Prairie is so much better, so much more interesting that I think if you want to read the series to a young child, that's the place to start, even though this is the first book in the series. This is a book for children who have already fallen in love with Laura and her wonderful family.

I read these as a youngster and I am re-reading them after a trip near Independence, Kansas where we saw a house where Laura's family once setteld. They are great books! I am seeing the whole experience from a new perspective now that I am 35 (relating more with Ma I think) and I am enjoying the stories completely. It's also nice because the books can be read in a single afternoon or just a few hours. A wonderful look at the pioneer life with details about cheese making, maple suger harvests, and cabin building (in the later novels). I highly recommend these books but suggest reading them in order to keep the story of Laura's adventures straight.

My favorite book of all time is Little House in the Big Woods , a novel by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The first reason I love this book is that it has so many descriptive words in it. Laura has such a way with words, and she uses them in just the right ways. For example, " The great, dark trees of the big wood...". The second reason is, that she puts in little stories about her grandpa and father, as a little boy. The third reason is, I love old things like antiques and log cabins. She can teach you all about pioneer days, in a great way. Laura also puts exciting things about her life on her family's farm in the book. If you like historical fiction and a great read, this is the book for you.

"Once upon a time, sixty years ago, a little girl lived in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, in a little gray house made of logs." So begins "Little House in the Big Woods," by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The book tells the story of young Laura, a pioneer girl who lives with her Pa, Ma, sister Mary, baby sister Carrie, bulldog Jack, and Black Susan the cat.

This book is a richly detailed portrait of pioneer life. There isn't much of a plot; the book is basically a record of the day-to-day lives of this hardy pioneer family. The book goes into fascinating detail about the family's activities: butchering a hog, smoking meat, churning butter, making bullets, fiddling, harvesting maple syrup, and more. Also fascinating are the characters' encounters with the various wild animals of the big woods--some dangerous, some cute.

The characters are memorable. Ma is the quintessential pioneer woman: hard-working and resourceful. I really got the sense that she's the glue that holds the family together. Pa is a particularly colorful and lovable character: a hunter, trapper, and farmer who is also a musician and a master storyteller. Indeed, the oral tradition of storytelling is an important motif in the book.

It's fascinating to escape to a world without DVDs, movie theaters, CDs, cable television, the Internet, or the other modern things we take for granted. This book takes us back to such a world, and reveals it to be a colorful and fascinating place.