I have lately become fascinated with America in the mid-to-late nineteenth century and our nations’s move West. Some books that I have recently finished in my personal reading include The History of the Donner Party (set in 1846-7), The Scalp Hunters (set in roughly 1860), and Mornings on Horseback (set between 1869 and 1886, when Theodore Roosevelt was just growing up). Now my growing interest has sent me back to stories I grew up watching on NBC but had never read before.
The Little House on the Prairie books have a special place in my family’s heart, because we all grew up along the banks of the Mississippi on the Wisconsin side, though an hour or so from Lake Pepin, and now my parents live in a small Minnesota town whose closest “big city” is Mankato. Can’t get much more homey with the Wilders than that!
I’ve been reading these books to my kids now (ages 7 and 9) during our COVID quarantine, and they’re both loving them. These have replaced our attempt at reading Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet which just isn’t yet age-appropriate. Still, I think a lot of the survival spirit that Brian showed in that book resemble the pioneer spirit of yesteryear.
The Little House in the Big Woods is set in 1860 while the Wilders are a young family with Pa, Ma, sister Mary, Laura herself, and baby Carrie. I can’t help seeing, as I read the story aloud, the little faces of those girls on TV and the gentle almost angelic face (ha!) of Michael Landon. We enjoyed Wilder’s explanation of the countless tasks that we take so for granted today, like the making of maple syrup, the darning of clothes, the need for hunting, and joys of a visit to town or a social dance. My kids’ eyes were opened to a world where “there’s no electricity!?” and to a time when the simplest tasks became laborious chores.
We don’t know how long we’ve got to spend indoors in the coming weeks, but we’re happy to have nine books from Laura Ingalls Wilder available. And who knows? Perhaps I’ll even find the shows online too!
©2020 E.T.
Read More from The Little House Series:
- Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1932)
- Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1933)
- Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1935)
- On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1937)
- By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1939)
- The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1940)
- Little Town on the Prairie Laura Ingalls Wilder (1941)
- These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1943)
- On the Way Home by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1962)
- The First Four Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1971)
- Little Farm in the Ozarks by Robert La MacBride (1994)
- Little House on Rocky Ridge by Roger Lea MacBride (1993)
- Confessions of a Prairie B*tch by Alison Arngrim (2010)