Laura Ingalls Wilder Books

I have a few books in this series and they are all very sweet and simple. My two year old really likes these and has been enjoying them since she was one. They are a pleasant nod to a simpler time when families worked side by side. The only point in this book that veers from the original series is that Pa calls Laura his little helper instead of his half pint. =)

I can't help wondering who the target market was for this book. Usually a boardbook would indicate that it was for a baby and/or toddler. But what baby knows who the Ingalls are, and what toddler understands that Laura and Pa used to live over a hundred years ago and that it made sense then to build your own doors. (Answer: none)

Since that only leaves you-and-me-the-adults as the intended market, I'd have to advise you to give this one a pass based on the fact that not only is the topic not all that appropriate for small ones, but there are only five pictures --if you include the front cover. They are nicely drawn, by the way, but printed in such soft pastels that, again, I don't think they'd be all that appealing to the boardbook set.

Pam T~

I always wondered about Laura's life during those lost years. The book is very sad, but I'm glad it was written. My 9-year-old daughter and I both read it and enjoyed it.

I have read all the Little House books, and even though this was not by Mrs Wilder, it is an excellent read. I just wish it had been longer, forget the purists, put it on your bookshelf with the other ones and encourage your children to read all of these books they are wonderful for children and adults.

This is an excellent book. I truly enjoyed reading it. It goes along with Laura Ingalls Wilder's other little house books. I truly enjoy all of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books.

I too am a true Little House fan. I agree with the others who wrote about Laura's hair. I noticed off of the bat that she had bangs. You would think the author/illustrator would of remembered that it was a big deal for Laura to cut her bangs. I was dissappointed when Grace and Freddie just popped up in the book. Rylant could of gone into more details about how the girls felt about Ma having another baby. For the girls to come home and there was a baby there seemed a little far fetched. I did noticed that there is a new edition of the book with Laura's hair in long braids. I guess enough people complained.

I liked this book ok, but like other reviewers, I missed the detail of Laura's original books. I kept expecting to get to the part where Mary loses her sight. If I recall correctly, at the beginning of Silver Lake, she tells us that Mary had gone blind after suffering from scarlet fever.
I also thought it was odd that the girls never noticed that Ma was pregnant! I didn't notice the bangs in the illustrations till I read the reviews here, but they are absolutely right!
I can understand why Laura left out these years in her books. With little Freddie dying, Mary losing her sight, and moving to places she was not enthused about, she likely did not care to share these stories.

If you are a fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder, then run screaming the other way from this book or any other by Thomas "T.L." Tedrow. He writes in the foreword that "this book is a fictional account of Laura's life," but then has the audacity to claim that it "retains the historical integrity of her columns, diary, family background, personal beliefs, and the general history of the time in which she lived." If you know anything about Laura Ingalls Wilder, you'll know that just about everything Tedrow writes about her does not remotely retain historical integrity of her family background. He says Laura and Manly built "Apple Hill Farm" instead of Rocky Ridge. He has Laura seeing northern lights from southwestern Missouri (so unlikely, it's ridiculous), while Manly (from upstate New York near the Canadian border) doesn't know what "them things" are. Little idiocies like that--as if Tedrow didn't bother to study anything about her life. And if you know anything about the historical time, you'll know even Tedrow's historical "facts" are incorrect. The book opens in 1906 with Laura and Manly getting ready to go to the World's Fair in St. Louis... but the World's Fair in St. Louis was in 1904. Tedrow mentions General "Danny Custer" of Little Big Horn fame... whoops, T.L., that would be "George Custer." If he felt the need to use real people from history (such as Wilder and Alice Roosevelt, in this book), then why not get the history correct? Shoddy research. And if he just wanted to write a fiction book, why not just use fictional characters? Why indeed? Because no one would have bought his drivel about "The Younguns," so he probably thought he could get someone to buy it by piggybacking on the popularity of a real author. I gave this book one star because it makes an excellent coaster.

Very fun reading. In this 5th book, Laura is sent on assighnment to the St. Louis Worlds Fair. The Young'uns win a dog show (through trickery, of course) and get free tickets to the Fair. Trouble and Disaster follow in their wake. Meanwhile, Laura meets a bunch of colorful characters and ends up rescueing an African pygmy. Good read.

If you ever have the chance to read this book you will be shocked, as I was, to read what appears to be the result of a dare. If there was a challenge to write a picture book about traveling West in pioneer days that would give any thinking child nightmares, this is the winning effort. People drink bad water, someone has a wooden leg as a result of a fight with a bear, people go off to hunt never to be seen again, Indians attack and leave skeletal remains....what was the publisher thinking?! I picked this up at a used book store because the illustrations are fantastic (Phillipe Dupasquier), but that is all this title has to offer.

I hope the next time jake0415 posts a review for a title on Amazon.com that he actually posts it on the correct book! "Going West" is NOTHING like what is described in the above review. It is a sweet, touching adaptation of the "Little House" stories that chronicles the family's decision and quest to strike out west. Trust, faith and taking pleasure in the small things of life are all evident here and the illustrations couldn't be better!

It's too bad the earlier reviewer appears not to understand the nature of fiction. The Little House books are wonderful, but, yes, they are fiction. Readers with an understanding of westward expansion in the US know that the stories are embellished. Fellner's examination shines an interesting light on these favorites and for those with an interest in Wilder's impact on literature and society, it's an interesting read. For those who simply want to love the books for what they are -- cherished childhood favorites -- they may want to stick with Wilder's writings alone.

The author of this book has NO CLUE what she is talking about. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about the TRUE historical events of her family's life on the prairies of the Midwest. Yes, some of her stories were somewhat embellished, but the Little House books are basically true, nontheless. The author is obviously a left-wing women's libber who can't quite comprehend that people actually lived the way Laura Ingalls Wilder describes life on the prairie. (And yes, Anita, women actually did a lot of housework back then, content to stay at home and raise their children, instead of donning "Hillary-clone" pantsuits and trying to climb the corporate ladder at the office - SHOCKER!!! - it sounds to me like you have a BIG problem with that). This book disgusts me. It's an obvious slam against conservatism - a view that is sorely lacking in our country. I am a HUGE fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder, to the point of naming my beautiful daughter Laura Elizabeth. I greatly admire LIW and all she stands for - home, hearth, and family - but with an independent spirit as well. I'd like to see today's feminists attempt to survive living the life that LIW and many other families like hers endured. We owe them a great debt - if it weren't for their endurance of the hardships of life on the prairie in the 1800's, we wouldn't be here today. The author of this book has never seen a child's eyes light up when the Little House books are read aloud to her or him, or has never visited one of the sites of the Ingalls homesteads, closed her eyes, felt the prairie breezes on her face,and imagined hearing the sound of the covered wagons. I have. I could go on (and on and on), but I won't. To sum up.......DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY AND TIME ON THIS TRASH. Instead, buy the set of the Little House books, snuggle up with an afghan and a cup of hot cocoa, and no matter how young or old you are, totally immerse yourself into Laura's world of life on the 1800's prairie. You have a real treat in store. And please, please, read the Little House series to your children and grandchildren, so her way of life will not be lost on future generations.

The main purpose of this guide is to acquaint the reader with what is to be found along the designated historic highway and places that have a significant relation to Laura Ingalls Wilder. The book is an overview of different regions in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived in the 1800's as described in her books. Starting in Wisconsin and ending in South Dakota, taking you town by town, following the movement of Laura and her family as she grew up on the Western Frontier.

The journey is broken down into sections that highlight a few places to visit in each area. Starting in Wisconsin's Upper Coulee Country & Mississippi River Valley, to the Mississippi Valley & Bluff Country of Minnesota & Iowa, then to the Minnesota River Valley and finally the Prairies of Minnesota & South Dakota. Interesting period history and some geographic information is given on these regions throughout the pages, which also exhibits a good share of black and white pictures. After these chapters come a few notes on Festivals & Pageants in certain towns along the route. Then the author talks about different travel option ideas for interest, such as small convoy camping or large group motor coach tours. At the back of the book is a quick reference list mainly giving phone numbers and some other contact information for towns & cities in each of the previously mentioned areas.

The book is fairly decent but meager and it really may not be what you expect. It provides very little in direct help on planning a trip (recommended places to eat or stay) but does gives a "lengthy" explanation of the Dakota Conflict of 1862. It's just as much, or maybe even more so, a book of U.S. history facts, findings and events as it is of an actual travel guide.

The thing I have liked most about these books has been that it can be more like my daughter's life than other books. This book is a good ABC book, but it has things my daughter may never know like a sunbonnet or tin pail or butter churn. However, my daughter *loves* it, so we keep reading it.

The book reads like it was written by a high school student. Ms. Romines lets her arguments lead her to the supporting evidence and not the other was around. For example, although Laura writes in These Happy Golden Years that she had never been as happy in her short life as she was the summer she taught at the Perry School and lived on her parents' claim, Ms. Romines decides this statement must be false because Laura can see the Wessington Hills out the window of the school and Wessington contains the letters W, E, S, and T so really she must be longing to go west the whole time. The most infuritating part was when she said that it would have been perfectly plausible for Laura to write a book about Mary's college years and that her decision not to might have been indicative of something under the surface. Anyone who knows these books at all knows that Laura's descriptions are almost entirely visual and the stories are told through the EYES of the main character. Laura's ability to capture the world with words came from spending years of her life filling in the gaps in Mary's experiences. How could she possibly have written a story from the point of vieew of a BLIND person? I may not agree with everything I read, but if it is written well and the arguments are supported well I enjoy learning something anyway. This book was a lesson in what should not be published.

After reading good and not so good reviews of this book, I attempted to read this book with an open mind. Hard thing to do, especially if you are a Laura-fanatic.

I can see where the author was coming from on such topics as minority issues and the subject of Ma and Laura's relationship. However, I think some of the gender/feminism issues were WAY over the top, and had to stop reading the book for a while after reading the ludirous accusations of an incestual relationship between Pa and Laura. Also, with all the conflicts the author tried to find, I"m surprised she didn't tackle the good ol' fashioned sibling rivalry that is a major player between Laura and Mary in the first 3 books, and rears its head from time to time in the last four.

The author tried too hard to find conflict where there wasn't any. There is a complex web we weave in day to day interactions that have anything and everything to do with gender, race, and class distinction but you know what? Sometimes a Rose is just a Rose.

I enjoy reading about Laura Ingalls and her family and was anxious to read this book as well. But I soon became disappointed quickly when the author decided to put sexual overtones into relationships between father and daughter and cast the mother as a predjudiced servant who followed her husband around like a dog. She mistankenly tried to explain the roles of the family in a 20th century feminist viewpoint, but it failed horribly. For example; in LHOTP, when Pa and Ma were raising the walls of the house, she seemed to write how Ma wasn't capable of raising the walls with heavy logs. " Obviously, a woman who participates in building courts disaster." What the author fails to realize is that logs are extremely heavy for any person, let alone a woman and the simple explanation is that Ma just could not lift such a heavy item. I highly doubt Pa thought that women bring bad luck and ruin any project that involve them. My advice to the author is that if you are going to write a book about a 19th century family, you can't think like a 20th century feminist.

What most of the reviewers here seem to have missed is that Romines's book is an academic analysis; don't read it if you're not interested in a textual analysis of the books. All that being said, as someone who loved the Little House books as a child and reread them as an adult, I was shocked to rediscover the gender and ethnic issues raised in the books. Romines book provided just the sort of scholarly analysis that I was looking for. I do feel that Romines made a few too many assumptions in her analyses (for example, the issue raised by other reviewers about the *subconscious* incestuous relationship between Laura and her father) -- but this may be because I don't really have a background in literary theory. Nonetheless, I was fascinated by the analysis of gender, race and ethnicity, consumption, age, etc., issues that are obvious when reading the books. In addition, Romines does a good job of making the book readable; she discusses her own love of the books from childhood to adulthood.

Romines' study of the Little House books is learned and informative. She alludes to many current discussions in literary studies. I recommend this book for the college student who is interested in children's literature and/or women's writing. Don't be put off by the negative reviews of readers who wanted hagiography rather than analysis.

This is a very simple cookbook. My neice was so excited to try the recipes. I would recommend this for those children who are Little House fans. I think they will enjoy some of the recipes. Only downfall...some of the items are more old fashioned, such as, making homemade butter. However, if they would like to see what it would be like, or maybe a class project, this could be fun.

While this isn't exactly gourmet cooking, it is the type of cooking a child can handle. This also teaches a child about the tools you need for cooking and shows step-by-step pictures in some recipes. The ingredients are divided into the recipe parts and the instructions are numbered.

The recipe for butter might be worth buying the book because it teaches children how foods are made from scratch. They might never really think about how butter is made until they are older. This teaches them some of the basics. The carrot is used for coloring but I can't imagine why you would put the carrot in the blender with the cream. I just found that rather odd. The recipe for Popcorn and Milk is not exactly delicious. But hey, you can't always have it all. And who knows, maybe someone out there thinks carrot butter is good.

The recipes include:

Breakfast Sausage Balls
Butter & Jam Sandwiches
Buttermilk Cornbread
Creamy Oatmeal
Homemade Butter
Laura's Little Maple Cakes
Lemonade

Ma's Best Butter Cookies
Pancakes
Popcorn and Milk
Strawberry Jam

Most of the recipes look fine although I can't say I've tried any of them. I see this book as more of an introduction to cooking. Basically showing a child how foods are made.

~The Rebecca Review

I purchased this book to find recipes to make for my daughters 8th birthday. She had read all the Little House Series and had a "Laura" party. I was very disappointed when the recipe for making butter called for a food proccesor. I was looking for recipes that would illustrate the frontier lifestyle not modern day cooking. The recipes called for ingredients they wouldn't have or use.

I've loved the Little House books my whole life. Now that I'm grown, with children of my own, I've started collecting anything to do with these books since they can help teach and illustrate the more simpler times gone by and I'm trying to teach my children those values. Considering that these recipes are very simple, most of them a child can make on their own or very little supervision, helping to impart a sense of accomplishment. You do have to take into account that these recipes were not written for an adult. If you want that, I reccomend The Laura Ingalls Wilder Country Cookbook. It's a collection of recipes that Laura compiled during her life. I was amazed at the horrible reviews left for this book. You have to remember that most of these recipes were from a more simple time when not only our habits but how food was prepared was radically different. Some people mentioned that these recipes seemed old fashioned, or that some of the techniques weren't what they expected. Well, as to old fashioned, what did you expect from books written about a time over 100 years ago? As for being dissapointed that the technique for the butter was too modern, you're lucky that they were updated so a modern reader could understand them. I have a cookbook that's over 100 years old passed down through my mothers family and I'm still trying to decipher some of it. All you had to do was buy some cream, some small canning jars, and give each girl a jar about half full of cream and let her shake it to her hearts content. No, popcorn and milk doesn't sound very appetizing to me, but then bread in milk doesn't either, and my great grandmother ate that with a bit of sugar for her "sweet tooth" quite often. As to the carrot in the butter, in the winter since fresh green pasture was not avaiable, the butter was not always yellow, but sometimes pure white and carrots were once used to give it a bit of color. You don't add the actual carrot to the butter. Grated carrots are added to water and boiled down to extract the color. It's the colored liquid left as a result that colored, as well as sweetened the butter. Carrots were often more available than annatto, a popular dye made from a tropical tree, that was also used, as well as powdered turmeric, which imparted a richer flavor. My copy of this book is packed at this time since we just moved, and it's been some time since I read it so I don't remember how the butter recipe was set up. However, if it does tell you to add the carrot directly to the cream in the blender, I would reccomend not doing that since you would wind up with little bits of carrots all through your butter. :D If it's available, buy carrot juice at a local health store and add a small amount of it to the cream before churning it. I do admit that some of the ingredients called for, and some of the technique as well, definately wouldn't have been used in that era. But you would be surprised at a lot of stuff that they did have access too, at times under different names than commonly used today. You really should give this little book a chance. I also reccomend The Anne of Green Gables Cookbook

Horrible! Horrible! Horrible! The recipes were terrible. Would anyone actually eat popcorn and milk mixed together?!! Is it really a recipe to just make popcorn and add it to milk?!! And the butter recipe was terrible. Butter is the easiest thing in the world to make... just add cream to a jar with a lid and shake. Why would you add a carrot to the cream? Why make it complicated? And do I really need a cookbook to make oatmeal or a butter and jam sandwich?

What a great idea for a story, especially for those of us who grew up with the Little House books and want to share the experience with our children. How fortunate, however, that I chose to preview this one before passing it along to my daughter. The book really isn't about Wilder at all. The overstory is used as a vehicle by the author to decry the evils of human beings as they take over the planet, littering, polluting and deforesting.

The litany is outrageous. As our young hero searches out the places where Wilder lived, we learn that winters are no longer hard because of destruction of the rain forest, people who drive RV's are hogs, the entire Big Woods has been chopped down for furniture, Lake Pepin is filled with litter, reproductions of historical sites have been turned into tourist traps by capitalists, streets have been paved and Silver Lake turned into a sewage pond. When the young diarist is disappointed that De Smet is not having a civic July 4th celebration her mother responds that the townsfolks must all be home sitting in their air-conditioning. The overall tone of the book is, well, whiney.

I don't think it's necessary to spend another 500 words debunking these points. Some of them are no doubt true. The bottom line is that Ms. Lasky has used a childrens book along with the name of a cherished author to disseminate her political and social views to the young and impressionable. Rhetoric is often at the core of worthwhile adult literature but is sorely misused here. I wonder if the author is getting a royalty from copies of this book sold at those tacky souvenir shops?

The photographs are gorgeous, and the story's very sweet and engaging. I bought the book for my eight year old niece, and I'm sure she'll adore it. (I've never read the Laura books, I'm afraid)... The really strange thing, what first caught my eye, is the co-author's name: Meribah Knight. Funny; my name is Mirabai Knight. Both pretty uncommon, aren't they? If the authors ever check this webpage, I'd like to email them. I'm curious about where they found a name like that for their daughter (and let's see... she must be around 15 or 16 now, right? I'm 17.), and how she's doing. Cool bit of serendipity, anyway. (`8