We finally finished the true series! I have been so happy with how much my kids have longed to hear these stories of late-19th-century prairie life each night. We began reading them in March of this year and technically finished at the end of November, so ten months for the nine-book series at a rate of 1-2 chapters per night (with sporadic “No time for reading tonight—brush your teeth and lights out!” nights thrown in).

This book was published posthumously, about thirty years after These Happy Golden Years. They are drafts of a sort, and thus they don’t quite have the same feel as the original first eight books, but who cares? This is Laura’s own private story—no made-up Nellie Olsen or dramatized dialogue here—just genuine, oftentimes painful recollections of her first four, incredibly difficult years of marriage to Manly Wilder. The droughts, the hail, the diphtheria, yet also the arrival of little Rose, Laura records the highlights of her new life as a married woman.

The chapter breakdown in this book also differs from the first eight books. In fact, she has just one chapter per year, so we had an interesting time finding good breaks (since my kids always ask for “one more chapter!”). I enjoyed the feel of it, though, and the different style. I may view this as my favorite installment of all.

The trials of farming back in the day gave us opportunity to talk about farming even today. While we don’t often hear of droughts today (barring California’s a few years back) nor of the dust storms that arise because of them, and while farmers may be somewhat insured against natural disasters these days, crop loss is never an easy thing to take, and the life of a farmer still remains a difficult one. Just this year, Iowan farmers lost over a million acres of corn simply from strong winds!

These trials are real, and it’s important for our children to understand that, and especially that the food they eat each day didn’t originate from a factory. Technological advances aside, hard-working Americans and foreigners alike still slave away in the dirty fields to grow crops and animals that make up our every meal. Books like this are as educational as they are entertaining, and I love reading them to my kids. I wonder what conversations the dystopian books or the fanciful series open up for parents as they read them to kids?

So what’s next on the docket for us, now that we’re finished with the Laura Ingalls Wilder series? Well, truth be told, we’re moving on to the Rose Years series by Roger Lea McBride, because we all want to know what happened after those difficult first four years! MacBride was a longtime friend of Rose Wilder, so his books are based off true events, just like the original series. As far as I can tell, The Caroline Years are way more based in speculation, so they don’t appeal much to me.

Quite obviously, I recommend this classic series of books to anyone, old or young. My son is nine and he’s just as excited to hear them as is my eight-year-old daughter, and just as much I am at thirty-seven to read them.

©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)