On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1937)

Posted on 2020-05-15 by thelittleman
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This is the fourth book in the series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, though we’ve skipped reading Farm Boy as a family until we get nearer to Laura’s coming of age. Instead, we’re plowing through the stories of her own childhood at the rate of about two chapters per night. And since we’re also watching one episode of the TV show per day, my kids have been pretty much only about Little House since we first started quarantining in this house at the end of March. In fact, they haven’t watched (or even requested) a single minute of any other television or movie besides, so that says a lot about their fascination with Laura and her family.

The more of this series we read together at night, the more I’m fascinated by its variance from the TV series. From what I recall, the series takes place almost entirely “on the banks of Plum Creek” near Walnut Grove, MN, yet that portion of their lives is only captured here in this single book. Only a few snippets of half-plots from the show find their source in this book, and even fewer characters besides. The Olesons, for example, don’t exist in this book (though I suppose their neighbors, the Nelson, might be a version of them), and Mr. Edwards who plays a major role in the TV show hasn’t been mentioned since the very first book. We enjoy the show and books both, of course, but it’s hard to help my kids distinguish “what really happened to Laura” as we enjoy the two.

As I mentioned already, this book covers only the Ingalls’ time in Minnesota, where Little House in the Big Woods took place in Wisconsin, and Little House on the Prairie took place in Kansas. This homesteading family certainly had their fill of travel, growing up in the late 1800s as they did, and the whole series is a fascinating look into family life during that time.

As I read these chapters, I felt they were less focused on teaching than the other books had been and more on just snippets and anecdotes from Laura’s childhood. There remains plenty to talk about with my children, and I’m sure there are excellent resources online for parents to use if they like, but I found that this book offered fewer natural conversation starters than the others.

Perhaps the most memorable portions of this book deal with grasshoppers. There’s grasshopper weather, and an entire plague of them that destroy the family’s wheat crops. There’s the grasshopper departure and the discovery of all those millions of eggs. It’s a terrifying book, if you look at it as they must have, these insects destroying not only their livelihood but also threatening them with starvation. I know that besides the COVID-19 pandemic, portions of the world are also dealing with locust plagues of their own, and it just makes you think of Egypt and/or the end of the world.

As I read about the locusts, though, and the fears of starvation, I had to wonder why they didn’t just eat the bugs. I’ve had fried grasshoppers, and I’m not ashamed to say that not only were they “not bad,” I actually found them to be quite delicious. Cooked crispy and with a little salt, they were just as good as chips, though the occasional spiny leg got caught in my teeth. I suppose hearing a billion of them destroying your wheat fields through a closed door might ruin your appetite, but I’d also think that a little “vengeance is mine” attitude would help prepare your pallet as well.

We really enjoyed this book, as we expected, and we look forward to what adventures and stories await us By the Shores of Silver Lake.

©2020 E.T.

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