Customer Reviews

Winter Days in the Big Woods (My First Little House Books)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My almost-four-year old insisted I read it three times in a row the first time we read it! It is a well-written abridged version that manages to retain a feel of the original.

"Winter Days" is one of my favorite books in the "My First Little House Books" series, and one of my favorite books about autumn. The Ingalls family prepares for winter with time for the harvest and food storage. Mary and Laura participate in daily chores and entertain themselves with their rag dolls, paper dolls,and by using a thimble to draw on the frosted window. Beautiful illustrations bring Laura's log cabin world to life, and are an excellent starting point for discussing how life is different then it used to be, and how some things never change.

This was my daughter's favorite book from the time she was about 3-8 years old. I bought it as a introduction to the original Little House books and continued to collect the entire set of these "First Books". Bright, cheery with excellent artwork showing strong family relationships.

My two year old son absolutely loves these books. I must admit that I was hesitant about then at first, being a Garth Williams purist and all, but they are well adapted and illustrated. I think that he mostly enjoys the illustrations at his age. Children of any age will enjoy them.

Winter Days in the Big Woods, an adaptation from the Little House on the Prarie classic series, will delight children and peak their interest in Pioneering life. The illustrations capture the attention and imagination of young children, whetting their appetite for more.

In this adaptation, kids get a glimpse into daily life of a close-knit family during Amrerica's pioneering days. Kids will learn about churning butter, baking bread and doing the general daily tasks to run a household and prepare for winter.

For anyone who has loved the original Laura Ingalls Wilder books, or even the television series years ago, this is a perfect introduction to the very young. My children have enjoyed these books for years and have now moved on to the books Wilder herself wrote. Put together, they've created fond, wholesome childhood memories for my children.

As I said about the birthday book, these are a great way to start a toddler off on the whole 'big' book series of Little House books. Pictures are beautiful!

This is an abridged adaptation that has the same feel as the original (I recognize some of the phrasing), with lovely illustrations that retain the feel of the original as well. My 3 1/2 year old loved it, and has wanted it read to her repeatedly. I look forward to getting her more of these until she is ready for the full books.

This is a short children's picture book adaptation of a portion of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little house in the Big Woods. This book focuses on wintertime in the rural frontier environment of her growing up years.

The text would be appropriate for a child to read on their own at a 3rd or 4th grade level. It's a smooth read aloud to those of younger ages. My 7, 5, and 3 1/2 year-old daughters enjoyed having this read to them, and the oldest enjoyed reading some of it to her grandmother.

One neat things to me in this book for children to see are the way that they had to prepare their food that would carry them through the winter, a unique concept for most Americans these days. Also, I love the simple play that Laura and Mary enjoyed in the attic with the pumpkins, drawing on the frosty windows, playing with homemade paper dolls. And you see the universality of young children wanting to be big and do what the grown-ups do as the girls help with the churning and making little bread loaves from Ma's dough.

The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous. They are very rich in color and imbue an idyllic charm to the storyline. However, I do have a bit of a complaint, in that I wish they had been just a bit more realistic. For one thing, Laura and Mary sport haircuts that are about halfway between chin and shoulder. Their hair would have been longer, as it would have been uncut. Still, in the grand scheme of things, this is a relatively minor complaint.

My children have already heard many of the Little House books as I've read them aloud, but they still enjoy these short stories and the illustrations. I would definitely recommend this book to those with children in the 3-8 year-old range, especially girls. Other titles in this series are good as well. My girls are quite happy to have the majority of them.

Doesn't everyone just love and remember "Little House on the Prairie" books? Since those chapter books were written way over 25 years ago there are now so many others to buy. This newer set is for the younger generation of little girls to read, collect and enjoy. I have already started a collection for my granddaughter. The colors pop off the page, the stories are short so they will sit though the reading of the book. The books are the stories we Grandmother's want to read to our little ones and Mother's would too. These have been around for a while, they come in paperbook now. You won't be disapppointed if you buy one because then you'll get hooked and won't the collection for that special little girl.