Skip to main content

My Reread of the Little House books part 1


A few weeks ago I posted about how I was taking a class on Laura Ingalls Wilder's early works (see the post here).  The class has ended and I have finished my re-read of the first four 'Little House' books.  I have read each of these books countless times but this was the first time I have read them as an adult.

I loved reading these stories again.  The illustrations are beautiful and each book is as wonderful as I remember it being.  I've been trying to come up with a favorite of these four and I just can't.  I do really lean toward Little House on the Prairie because I love the descriptions of the family setting up their homestead but I don't think I could choose a true favorite of these four.  Farmer Boy was a little less fun to read because the edition I read didn't have any illustrations in it; Garth Williams illustrations help make these books great so I was really bummed to realize that the copy of Farmer Boy I got from the library didn't have any. 

It was strange to read these books as an adult because I noticed things that I wouldn't have noticed as a child.  On the Banks of Plum Creek has a lot of fun little stories that help make up the book as a whole but it also shows how poor the family was, how much they were relying on their wheat crop and how devastating it was when they lost it.  There were a couple of scenes where I cringed as I watched Pa Ingalls go on about how they could afford everything when they wheat was sold and seeing him buy a lot on credit because they could easily pay for it with their wheat crop.  Knowing how the story ended just broke my heart and showed me how precarious the family's situation really was.

I was also shocked by just how hard the Ingalls family worked.  They had a home set up in Wisconsin, left it and went to Kansas, built a functioning home there, left and built a new one in Minnesota.  The amount of work that went into building a home and maintaining it was astronomical and then to have to start over and over must have just been overwhelming at times.

Farmer Boy is a little different than the other three books as it focuses on Laura's husband, Almanzo's, childhood.  I love this book because of the descriptions of the food.  Oh my goodness, I want to live at Almanzo's house in this book because it is non-stop delicious food (at least that is the way it is portrayed in the book).  Almanzo's family was much better off financially than Laura's and it is pretty obvious.  That's not to say that the Wilder's didn't work as hard as the Ingalls, they just had more luxuries and a lot better food.

Overall, I had so much fun with this re-read and I really look forward to reading these with Julia when she's older.  The second half of the course starts in April and I can't wait to re-read the rest of the series!  


Comments

  1. I know that I've said it before, but I love that you're rereading these! And well, am thinking that a goal of mine for 2015 needs to be to reread them as well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Okay, so I am off to dig these out from the attic and re-read them!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review and Giveaway: "Distant Signs" by Anne Richter

Synopsis: Distant Signs is an intimate portrait of two families spanning three generations amidst turbulent political change, behind and beyond the Berlin Wall. In 1960s East Germany, Margret, a professor’s daughter from the city, meets and marries Hans, from a small village in Thuringia. The couple struggle to contend with their different backgrounds, and the emotional scars they bear from childhood in the aftermath of war. As East German history gradually unravels, with collision of the personal and political, their two families’ hidden truths are quietly revealed. An exquisitely written novel with strongly etched characters that stay with you long after the book is finished and an authentic portrayal of family life behind the iron curtain based on personal experience of the author who is East German and was 16 years old at the fall of the Berlin Wall. Why do families repeat destructive patterns of behaviour across generations? Should the personal take precedence over

Top Ten Books I Recommend The Most

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish . This week's topic:  Top Ten Books I Recommend the Most 1.) The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons   2.) Outlander by Diana Gabaldon           If you read my blog at all, you know I love these two books so much!  I am not afraid to suggest them to anyone who I think might enjoy them. 3.) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - I was definitely recommending this book left and right when the first movie came out. 4.) The Fault in Our Stars by John Green 5.) A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin           These are two books that I just recently started recommending but they are books that can appeal to anyone so they are easy picks when someone asks for a recommendation. 6.) Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead  - I get a little embarrassed when I recommend this book to people but seriously, just because it has vampires does not mean it is like Twilight. 7.) The Giver by Lois

Book Blog Hop (11)

The Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme hosted by Jen at Crazy for Books .  It's a way to meet other bloggers and check out some cool new blogs. This week's question is:  "Highlight one book you have received this week that you can't wait to dig into!" Okay, I have a confession to make.  I have been so busy this week that I have not had time to get any new books.  I have several waiting for me at the library but I won't be able to pick them up until this weekend.  : ( Did you all get any exciting new books this week?