We’ve been pretty faithful as a family these past four months. We watch an episode of The Little House on the Prairie, perhaps 6 nights per week, before having our devotions on the Keys for Kids app, and then going to bed with at least one chapter from the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. We have already read books 1, 2, 4, and 5, but we chose to skip this third book, Farmer Boy, until Almonzo himself showed up in Laura’s life (which happened at the end of book 5, By the Shores of Silver Lake).

Because this book introduced us to a whole new family, and because Laura, Mary, and Carrie were nowhere to be found in Farmer Boy, my kids took a while to get into it. New York state, a wealthier, more successful farming family, a boy protagonist—all these things were so different. But soon enough, my kids got to know Almonzo and his desperate desire to break his own colt, and they finally got into the story and looked forward to it each night.

As we progressed through the book, however, I could tell their interest waned from time to time. This book is far more technical than Wilder’s other stories so far. Every contraption in the house and barn, it seems, gets the most intricate description of its parts and workings. The kids’ eyes generally glazed over in these parts, and even I had a hard time picturing some of the devices in my mind.

Still there were enough great scenes to capture the kids’ imaginations, and two especially stand out. First was the sheep-sheering day, when Almonzo’s dad and brother teased him that they could always sheer every sheep before he could get the wool carried up into the attic, and no matter how fast Almonzo moved, they were right. They were always at least one ahead. But Almonzo cleverly solved that problem by sneaking a wooly sheep into the attic, so when the men boasted that they’d sheered the last sheep and therefore won the bet, Almonzo snidely rejoiced that they were wrong: they’d missed one sheep and it’s wool was already upstairs! My kids loved that story.

The other great story came when Almonzo found a wallet filled with $1,500. It belonged to a grumpy old miser, and when Almonzo showed great integrity by politely returning the wallet to the man, the old man was nearly angry and only gave him a nickel’s reward. The carriage-maker who witnessed it all threatened the miser with bodily harm if he didn’t cough up a full $200 to the boy, which he did, and which Almonzo’s dad ultimately let him keep. It was the culmination of Almonzo’s dreams as he put the money away in the bank with the hope of buying a horse for his very own.

Knowing that Almonzo would one day show up in Laura’s life with the most beautiful team of horses in South Dakota, and that he’d end up marrying the girl, we knew that all would be well with that boy from there on out.

We look forward to seeing Almonzo again in the book we’re reading now, The Long Winter. We’ve still got seven more books by or about Laura Ingalls Wilder, so we’re set for the long haul, and none of us have tired of her yet!

©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)