My children and I have made it now through all the first six books of the original Little House series, and this sixth book, The Long Winter, has been my favorite of all. My kids probably disagree.
Each of Laura Ingalls Wilder‘s books has recounted periods of her life in various locations along the American frontier:
- Little House in the Big Woods – Wisconsin
- Little House on the Prairie – Kansas
- On the Banks by Plum Creek – Minnesota
- By the Shores of Silver Lake – South Dakota
Her second book, Farmer Boy, covered the childhood of her husband Almonzo in New York state. Each of these books, though, has been a collection of anecdotes strung together in a sort of haphazard way. They’re memories and recollections, and they absolutely chronicle the life of a pioneer family through thick and thin, but they don’t really feel like novels in the normal sense of the word.
The Long Winter is the first book that feels (to me) like a coherent whole. Covering South Dakota’s harsh winter of 1880-1881, the chapters in this novel are longer, more unified, and more purposeful than any chapters in Wilder’s other books so far. They’re exciting, and some even end in cliffhangers. For that reason, I really looked forward to reading the book each night.
My children have enjoyed all the books, and now that we’re finally getting back into the series with Little Town on the Prairie, they’re showing that they can understand and follow even the most detailed of descriptions from Wilder—though last night I had to explain to them what corset is. It’s been a long time since I had a conversation about corsets, let me tell you!
©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)