Customer Reviews

Little Town on the Prairie (Little House)

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The town of De Smet is filled with relief! The long horrible winter is finally over. Everyone is so happy to be able to have fun outside and to eat real meals again!

The Ingalls family is back out on the claim and Laura is thrilled! She loves to run through the grass and help Pa with the chores.

The book starts with Laura accepting a job in town. She is uncertain about how she will handle being cooped up inside all day, but she is eager to earn money for Mary's schooling.

Fourth of July comes and Pa takes Laura and Carrie into town for the celebration. The town is bursting with activity. The girls are nervous about being in such a crowd, but they are excited to drink fresh cool lemonade and to watch the horse races.

All too soon it is time for Mary to attend college. They all know how wonderful it will be for her and how happy she will be to be learning and growing in a world that teaches her how to live blind. All of these good things do not diminish the aches in their hearts as they bid sweet, gentle, thoughtful Mary good-bye.

When Laura and Carrie start school again, they are dismayed to see Nellie Olson appear! They do not want to have to deal with her again. True to form, Nellie causes trouble, which makes this section of the book very entertaining. Laura is such a spitfire that it is fun to read of her adventures.

This winter in town is a far cry from their last winter. This winter brings laughter and gaiety in the form of name cards, literaries, a birthday party and rides with Almonzo with his beautiful Morgan horses.

'Little Town on the Prairie' is a delightful book. It is interesting, entertaining and often funny. You will enjoy it! I enthusiastically recommend you add it to your collection!

This (and Happy Golden Years) is my favorite book of the Little House series. The Ingalls family is doing well; the town has recovered from the Hard Winter; and Laura is changing from a girl into a woman. The descriptions of the characters and the surroundings are vivid and real. I don't care if Rose Wilder Lane wrote most of the books or not - the Little House series is a gift to all readers, not just young readers! I'm in my 30's and I still love to read them periodically, but this is one of my very favorites.

Twenty four years ago, I was a ten year old girl who saved every last penny to save $35.00 to buy the Little House on The Prairie boxed set by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It was my love of the TV show that started the savings venture...I heard it was based on a true story and I needed to know all the details. What happened when I received those books, and read them one after another that year changed me into a fan of the show, into a full fledge Laura Ingalls Wilder enthusiast. Why? Because of the simple beauty of the pioneer tales within. Stories that show that even when things are worse than you or I can imagine, family and faith still bring hope and contentment. Little Town on the Prairie is one of my two favorite stories. Even as a ten year old I loved watching Laura turn into a lady in this story. Its been several years since I read this one, and taking a break from my regular readings seemed a good idea. I noticed that I picked up new little things this time around. I can read different things into that meeting with Almonzo where he and Laura change cards, I can feel the shame and tension in the school house scene where Laura defends Carrie to Ms. Wilder (I think I felt this horror anew from a parents perspective) and I also noticed Ma's prejudices against the Indians more keenly as well. There was a scene I even felt uncomfortable with. In a social gathering at the school, some of the town's men dressed in black paint and acted like "darkies" to the amusement of the audience. I think Laura herself, would flinch from that in this day and age. But again, it only emphasizes the times the Ingalls family were living in, and how far this country has come. The country has made mistakes along the way (slavery and the Trail of Tears, for example). But where we are now is in no little part, due to the efforts of the brave pioneers like the Ingalls family. This is a historical, christian, pre-romance, and tale of growing from child to woman all in one and there is no doubt in my mind, why this remains a beloved story to children and adults everywhere today.

Little Town on the Prairie is my favourite book out of all the "Little House" series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I enjoyed this book more than the other books because it was happier, for there were not so many depressing times the Ingalls family had to endure.
The title is self-explanatory, a little town on the prairie, which is in Dakota, USA. The story is set during the 1880's. The Ingalls family, consisting of six people, was always moving from place to place. When they came to Dakota, they were very happy with it. Their little "shanty" that they stayed in during the summer was built into a new, improved house. Mary, the oldest sister, is accepted into the college of the blind, and Laura continues school and has a summer job. Things are going very well at the Ingalls household. There is enough food for everyone, and there wasn't another hard winter, like everyone expected. Most problems have solutions like when there were gophers eating their corn, they got a cat to kill them. The only problem is school, because of the new teacher, Eliza Jane Wilder. She is Almanzo Wilder's sister. She turns out to be horribly mean to Laura and her younger sister, Carrie, because Nellie Oleson (Laura's enemy mentioned before in "The Banks of Plum Creek") told the teacher negative remarks about Laura. Soon, a new teacher replaces her. All of the problems work themselves out somehow, which is what I like about this book.
In my opinion, Laura Ingalls Wilder does an exquisite job captivating all her readers with her refined choice of words, meticulous detail, and up-beat plot. This is absolutely the best piece she's written. She does an admirable job of describing the setting so it makes you feel like you're right there, witnessing the whole scene. The book also has a good balance of good times and bad times, because if it was all bad times the book would seem depressing, and if it was all good times, the book would seem hard to believe. I would recommend this book for those who enjoy realistic fiction or historical fiction. I think a possible theme for this story would be hold on, things will get better. This theme is displayed throughout all the "Little House" series. This is my all time favourite book, and I hope you enjoy it, too.

Since I've first read this book when I was a little younger than Laura, so I was really excited to read what life was like 'back then' for kids my age.

The hard winter is finally over, and the Ingalls family finally moves out to their claim, where Laura enjoys the outside work and the sunshine. But then she is offered a job as a seamstress in town, and takes it even though she misses the outdoors. The work is hard, and the environment is unpleasant, but Laura sticks it out.

Ma=ry finally has a chance to go to the blind college in Iowa, and while Ma and Pa take her there, Laura, Carrie and Grace clean the house.

School finally begins again, and an unpleasant surprise comes along on the first day - Nellie Oleson from Plum Creek, who schemes and causes trouble. The high point of this situation is the troble between Laura and Ms. Wilder, the teacher, who only hears unpleasant things about Laura from Nellie, and Laura's short temper, especially where Carrie is concerned, does not help the situation... But Ida, the new girl, is nice enough to make up for Nellie's unpleasantness.

Laura is grown up enough to want fashionable cloths and all other fashionable things other girls her age in school have, such as name cards. She is invited to parties and attends her first evening sociable.

We start seeing the relationship between Laura and Almanzo Wilder start developing (even though I think her relationship with his sister, her unpleasant ex - school teacher, might give things an interesting twist).

First let me say that I read this in the full-color collector's edition, and it was lovely. Thick, glossy pages that could withstand much "love" and Garth Williams' lovely drawings enhanced with color. Very nice.

In Little Town on the Prairie, Laura is about 15 and the Ingalls family spends most of the narrative in the town of DeSmet, South Dakota. Laura has adapted to town life (compare her discomfort at being surrounded by strangers in By the Shores of Silver Lake) and is experiencing life as a young lady in frontier society in the 1880's. The period detail is rich and rewarding in this book, and in its own way, Little Town shows Laura struggling with the need to "fit in" with her peers, just as every teenager experiences today. For Laura, it's having a chance to select her own printed "name cards" and exchange them with her friends. ($0.25 for a dozen cards, a princely sum by Ingalls' standards). She also experiences a bit of evil glee at seeing the tables turned on Nellie Oleson, who is now the poor country girl. On the other hand, we see Laura work steadfastly at a hated job of sewing sleeves on men's shirts, because of her dedication to giving Mary a chance to attend college for the blind. She also dedicates herself to studying for a teacher's license so she can further supplement the family's income, and at the end of the book achieves her goal, via a lie of omission (something that Ma surely would have disapproved!).

In a remarkable section, Laura describes sewing an elegant winter dress for Mary to wear at college, and then casually tosses in that they made a hat to go with it! How on earth does one make a hat, and isn't it remarkable that Laura Ingalls Wilder didn't think hat-making merited any special mention?

We also see the intellectual side of Ma and Pa, as they go head-to-head in a fierce spelling bee competition. Pa is primarly a businessman in Little Town, which is a delightful contrast to his handyman skills that were so prominently on display in the earlier Little House volumes. Pa also delights in creating Literary Society productions for Friday nights in town. There is a queasy-making (by modern standards) chapter describing a blackface show, which may provoke some important discussions between parents and children. Ma is ever the conscientious molder of young women's behavior; it's a thankless job but someone has to do it.

Finally, Little Town is where Laura begins to be courted by Almanzo Wilder. He walks her home from the Literary Society several times, and gives her a sleighride behind his glorious team of horses. Tame stuff by modern standards, but Ma and Pa's tightlipped and cautious acceptance of this much-older man in Laura's life tells us everything we need to know.

I have recently started listening/collecting the Little House series on CD. This one, so far, has been my favorite. After finishing it the first time, I had no qualms about immediately plugging in CD 1 again!

The book begins with Pa asking Laura, "How would ya like to work in town?" and thus begins Laura's career as an assistant shirt-maker. It is hard work for one who hates to sit still, but the money she is making for Mary's college education keeps her going. Eventually, the work ends and life goes on in a leisurely way that summer. They celebrate the Fourth of July, and Laura vows to one day ride behind Almanzo Wilder's Morgan horses. I especially loved how Cherry Jones read the Declaration of Independence.

Mary does get to go to college in this book, and Miss Wilder comes to teach school. On the first day of school, who should show up but Nellie Olsen! Of course, that always makes the story interesting. It doesn't take long for the reader to find out that Miss Wilder is totally ineffectual at keeping order in the schoolroom. However, she seems to find pleasure at punishing Laura and Carrie (the ONLY students she EVER reprimands in any way) for things totally inconsequential. The children soon find great pleasure in irritating and mocking "Lazy, Lousy Lizzy Jane". One thing that Nellie Olsen brings "from the east" (or so she says) is the exchanging of name cards. Pa realizes how much Laura would like to have these, and so gives her the money to buy them. On the day that she picks them up, who should offer her a ride back to school but Almanzo Wilder and his team of Morgan horses! She tells him of her reason for going to the newspaper office, and he, in turn, shows her his name card. Not knowing what to do with it exactly, Laura asks him if he wants his card back. He says no, so she feels obligated to give him one of hers (after all, Nellie said that you must EXCHANGE them). I thought that part was very sweet.

Eventually, Laura feels life settling into a rut. As the rest of the townspeople were feeling the same way, they set out to form a "literary society". Basically, everyone gets together every Friday night for some form of entertainment or another. The first night is a spelling bee, with everyone in town participating. Each literary just got better and better, and soon everyone was buzzing with excitement over them. This starts other exciting things happening, such as a New England Supper given on Thanksgiving night and a birthday party for one of the boys at school. Life continues on in a merry way, and the revival meetings came. Laura and her family attended faithfully every night, for "those who don't go to revival are ATHEISTS" (or so declars Nellie Olsen). It is at this time that Laura has the unexpected pleasure of Almanzo Wilder asking her every night "May I see ya home?"

At the end of the school year, Laura gives a fine recitation of the history of the US. It happens that a man looking for a schoolteacher for his town is there. The next day, he arrives unexpectedly to ask Laura to be their teacher! She takes the examination and receives her teaching certificate. This is what she has been waiting and working for so long in order to help pay for Mary's college education.

It is here that the book ends. I can't wait for the next one to come out. How will she do teaching at her first school? Will Almanzo Wilder continue to pursue her, or will the distance be too much?

(...) But this next book, Little Town on the Prairie, is outstanding. The Ingalls have a short winter this year and everything seems to go right. But like we all know, even though we are warm and fed, problems just seem to come along. Now that Laura is 14 and 15 years old, she learns to care about and appreciate other people besides just her immediate family. She likes Ida, Cap, Mary Power and Minnie. She goes to a fancy birthday party for a boy named Frank. We see that she is becoming a beautiful young lady and she starts describing clothes and hairstyles in detail.
She even buys the latest thing - name cards. And when she sees Almonzo,she says "I was just picking up my name cards". MY name cards. Like she was so totally in fashion forever. She is very smart and can do long division in her head. There are many fun social occasions in this book and some exciting power struggles with the teacher, Eliza Jane(Almonzo's sister), Nellie Oleson, etc. This is absolutely the most enjoyable book in the series. But I said that last time. Next will be "These Happy Golden Years". It can't be better than this one, but I've just got to see what happens! I can't close without again mentioning how much you learn in this book. This book teaches social history. You learn how to operate a corsett, hoop skirt, and what a lunatic fringe is, and how to curl your hair without a curling iron. You find out what to do when plagued by blackbirds and gophers, what to do when you're "home alone", and how to behave at your first paying job. This book is the beginning of the end of the little Ingalls family. Mary goes away to college, and soon Laura will become a teacher. We all have to face it sooner or later, our children will grow up. See how an ideal family handles it, with grace and love.

I love this whole series - I am reading it to my 9,7,5 year olds and they are enjoying it. I have boys and girls. I loved it as a kid and am enjoying sharing it with mine.

For this book review I read Little Town on the Prarie by:Laura Ingles Wilder. This book is good reading for preteen girls. The story is historical and is about living in the pioneer days.

In this book Laura and her family work hard to send her older sister to Collage and keep her there untill she finishes. Laura and her little sister Grace have to go to school when they move to town for the winter. Laura is very exited about going to school because she wants to get her teachers certifacit when she is sixteen. To find out what else happens you will have to read the book.

This book was fun to read and kept my intrest. It was a little confusing at timeskeeping up with who was talking. It was very interesting also to learn about how they lived back then. Over all it was a good book and I would consider reading it again.