Post by braided-rug on Jul 3, 2006 19:56:53 GMT 10
Little House Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little House in the Big Woods: Five year old Laura Ingalls and her family, Pa, Ma, Mary, and Baby Carrie, live in a log cabin in the big woods of Wisconsin, a full day's walk from the nearest town, Pepin. There are many aspects of farm life that Laura learns, such as making cheese, hog butchering, butter churning, and fur trading. She even goes to town for the first time. Laura and Mary have many childhood games, and get to sit on Pa's knees and hear him tell the stories of when he grew up or of when his father grew up. There is even a sugaring-off dance at Grandpa's!
Farmer Boy: Nine year old Almanzo Wilder and his family, Father, Mother, Royal, Eliza Jane, and Alice, live on a large farm outside of Malone, New York. Almanzo goes to school, helps cut ice from a river, farms, goes to the town celebrations, and gets shoes and toys when the cobbler and peddler visit. He has a young boy's huge appetite, and man does he eat! Almanzo also wants to have a horse of his very own, but Father thinks he is too young. Will he ever get one?
Little House on the Prairie: The Ingalls family decides to move from Wisconsin to Kansas and build a new home on the prairie. They face many hardships while traveling, build a new little cabin, encounter the very few settlers in the area (which was Indian Territory at the time), sickness, prairie fire, good and bad Indians, and finally realize the heartbreak of losing their new farm. Here they meet Mr. Edwards, who becomes a very special family friend, and Dr. Tann, a black doctor to the Indians. A book that has been banned in many libraries for racial content, it actually shows how settlers of the time felt. Some were prejudiced, some weren't. Even within the same family there were often differences of opinion.
On the Banks of Plum Creek: The Ingalls family get a new start in Minnesota. They live in a little dugout in the side of a creek and then move to a real house. They experience happiness and also disappointment, when the grasshopper plague hits. The girls' start school and Laura meets her childhood enemy, Nellie Oleson. The girls swim, slide in the hay, play in the creek, make fishtraps, go to the town church, and much more! There is even a town Christmas tree.
By the Shores of Silver Lake: The Ingalls life has been full of heartbreak since the end of the last book. Mary, the eldest daughter, is now blinded from an attack of scarlet fever. The family is very poor; they have never quite got back on their feet after the grasshoppers. But there is the good in their life, too. Now, a new baby has been added to the family, Grace, with her big blue eyes. And, Aunt Docia, Pa's sister, is willing to give her brother a job working for the railroad for $50 a month in the Dakota Territory. So Pa leaves and the girls follow a few weeks later, taking their first train ride. A railroad camp is an exciting place, but the family likes it best that winter, after everyone has left, and they are alone on the prairie in the big, white, Surveyors' House, the largest they've ever lived in. But will Pa find a homestead before all the land in the new town of De Smet is taken?
The Long Winter: On October 1, 1880, a blizzard hits the tiny town of De Smet. Who ever heard of a blizzard that early? Then, when Pa goes to town for supplies, an old Indian comes in the store and warns the town that this winter will have 7 months of blizzards. Every seventh winter is hard, but the third seventh winter is the hardest of all, and it is this winter. So the Ingalls family move to a store building they own in town. The family is trapped in the little rooms until the end of April as blizzard after blizzard hits the town, only letting up for a day or less every week or so. No trains can get through and the town is running out of food and feul. Learning to twist hay into haysticks for burning and to grind wheat in coffee mills just for bread are a few of the survival skills learned that winter. And just as the town is about to eat their last reserves of food, a daring Cap Garland and Almanzo Wilder go in search of some rumored wheat many miles away.
Little Town on the Prairie: The hard, long winter is over. The Ingalls are back on their farm. And Laura gets a job sewing. From here she can see the town growing, and she is saving money to help send blind sister Mary to College. That fall Laura goes to school. There she meets friends Mary Power, Minnie Johnson, and Ida Wright, the minister's adopted daughter. Also, Nellie Oleson moves to De Smet and treats Laura just as bad as ever. Then the new teacher, Miss Wilder, decides that she hates Laura and Carrie, but loves Nellie. The town has socials, literaries, and many other forms of amusement. There is even a revival at church, and the dashing Almanzo Wilder, owner of the perfect pair Morgan horses, walks Laura home. Finally, Laura is offered a real job, teaching at a settlement 12 miles away. Even though she is only 15, she passes her teacher's examination and gets her first certificate.
These Happy Golden Years: Laura Ingalls, now a 15 year old school teacher, is living with a woman that hates her and a man that spends all his time as far from the house as possible. Three of her five students are older and taller than she is. If it wasn't for that nice Wilder boy, Almanzo, taking her home every weekend, even in 40 degrees below zero weather, she wouldn't be able to handle it. After her teaching term is over Laura returns to school life in De Smet. Now there are sleigh rides on Sunday with Almanzo and fun with her friends during the week. Once spring comes, Laura even gets to help Almanzo break horses to drive! Laura gets two more teaching jobs and has a romantic courtship with "that Wilder boy". In the end, Laura gets a new "Little House", this time one of her own.
The First Four Years: Published after her death, this book is not as polished in style as the others. The first four years of the Wilder's marriage is full of many joys, and also many hardships. The Wilder's two children are born, Rose, and a boy who dies shortly after birth. Storms destroy the crops and the debts keep mounting. Then a serious disease threatens Laura and Almanzo. But the Wilders never give up on their life or their love for each other.
On the Way Home: This is Laura's diary of her move to Mansfield, Missouri in 1894. With an opening and closing chapter by Rose Wilder Lane to give background and an ending to the story, it is a very good account of the trip to their new home. Some of the times they had were funny and some were hard and saddening, but they eventually got to what would become the Wilder home for the rest of their lives, Rocky Ridge Farm.
West From Home: This is a collection of letters, mostly from Laura (or Bess, as she was called) to her husband Manly, while on a trip to San Fransisco in 1915 to visit their daughter, Rose, who was, at this time, a newspaper reporter. This book shows how Laura was good at noticing everything and being the eyes for her husband back at home, skills she would later put to use in writing her Little House series.
From: webpages.marshall.edu/~hatcher3/lhbooks.html
Little House in the Big Woods: Five year old Laura Ingalls and her family, Pa, Ma, Mary, and Baby Carrie, live in a log cabin in the big woods of Wisconsin, a full day's walk from the nearest town, Pepin. There are many aspects of farm life that Laura learns, such as making cheese, hog butchering, butter churning, and fur trading. She even goes to town for the first time. Laura and Mary have many childhood games, and get to sit on Pa's knees and hear him tell the stories of when he grew up or of when his father grew up. There is even a sugaring-off dance at Grandpa's!
Farmer Boy: Nine year old Almanzo Wilder and his family, Father, Mother, Royal, Eliza Jane, and Alice, live on a large farm outside of Malone, New York. Almanzo goes to school, helps cut ice from a river, farms, goes to the town celebrations, and gets shoes and toys when the cobbler and peddler visit. He has a young boy's huge appetite, and man does he eat! Almanzo also wants to have a horse of his very own, but Father thinks he is too young. Will he ever get one?
Little House on the Prairie: The Ingalls family decides to move from Wisconsin to Kansas and build a new home on the prairie. They face many hardships while traveling, build a new little cabin, encounter the very few settlers in the area (which was Indian Territory at the time), sickness, prairie fire, good and bad Indians, and finally realize the heartbreak of losing their new farm. Here they meet Mr. Edwards, who becomes a very special family friend, and Dr. Tann, a black doctor to the Indians. A book that has been banned in many libraries for racial content, it actually shows how settlers of the time felt. Some were prejudiced, some weren't. Even within the same family there were often differences of opinion.
On the Banks of Plum Creek: The Ingalls family get a new start in Minnesota. They live in a little dugout in the side of a creek and then move to a real house. They experience happiness and also disappointment, when the grasshopper plague hits. The girls' start school and Laura meets her childhood enemy, Nellie Oleson. The girls swim, slide in the hay, play in the creek, make fishtraps, go to the town church, and much more! There is even a town Christmas tree.
By the Shores of Silver Lake: The Ingalls life has been full of heartbreak since the end of the last book. Mary, the eldest daughter, is now blinded from an attack of scarlet fever. The family is very poor; they have never quite got back on their feet after the grasshoppers. But there is the good in their life, too. Now, a new baby has been added to the family, Grace, with her big blue eyes. And, Aunt Docia, Pa's sister, is willing to give her brother a job working for the railroad for $50 a month in the Dakota Territory. So Pa leaves and the girls follow a few weeks later, taking their first train ride. A railroad camp is an exciting place, but the family likes it best that winter, after everyone has left, and they are alone on the prairie in the big, white, Surveyors' House, the largest they've ever lived in. But will Pa find a homestead before all the land in the new town of De Smet is taken?
The Long Winter: On October 1, 1880, a blizzard hits the tiny town of De Smet. Who ever heard of a blizzard that early? Then, when Pa goes to town for supplies, an old Indian comes in the store and warns the town that this winter will have 7 months of blizzards. Every seventh winter is hard, but the third seventh winter is the hardest of all, and it is this winter. So the Ingalls family move to a store building they own in town. The family is trapped in the little rooms until the end of April as blizzard after blizzard hits the town, only letting up for a day or less every week or so. No trains can get through and the town is running out of food and feul. Learning to twist hay into haysticks for burning and to grind wheat in coffee mills just for bread are a few of the survival skills learned that winter. And just as the town is about to eat their last reserves of food, a daring Cap Garland and Almanzo Wilder go in search of some rumored wheat many miles away.
Little Town on the Prairie: The hard, long winter is over. The Ingalls are back on their farm. And Laura gets a job sewing. From here she can see the town growing, and she is saving money to help send blind sister Mary to College. That fall Laura goes to school. There she meets friends Mary Power, Minnie Johnson, and Ida Wright, the minister's adopted daughter. Also, Nellie Oleson moves to De Smet and treats Laura just as bad as ever. Then the new teacher, Miss Wilder, decides that she hates Laura and Carrie, but loves Nellie. The town has socials, literaries, and many other forms of amusement. There is even a revival at church, and the dashing Almanzo Wilder, owner of the perfect pair Morgan horses, walks Laura home. Finally, Laura is offered a real job, teaching at a settlement 12 miles away. Even though she is only 15, she passes her teacher's examination and gets her first certificate.
These Happy Golden Years: Laura Ingalls, now a 15 year old school teacher, is living with a woman that hates her and a man that spends all his time as far from the house as possible. Three of her five students are older and taller than she is. If it wasn't for that nice Wilder boy, Almanzo, taking her home every weekend, even in 40 degrees below zero weather, she wouldn't be able to handle it. After her teaching term is over Laura returns to school life in De Smet. Now there are sleigh rides on Sunday with Almanzo and fun with her friends during the week. Once spring comes, Laura even gets to help Almanzo break horses to drive! Laura gets two more teaching jobs and has a romantic courtship with "that Wilder boy". In the end, Laura gets a new "Little House", this time one of her own.
The First Four Years: Published after her death, this book is not as polished in style as the others. The first four years of the Wilder's marriage is full of many joys, and also many hardships. The Wilder's two children are born, Rose, and a boy who dies shortly after birth. Storms destroy the crops and the debts keep mounting. Then a serious disease threatens Laura and Almanzo. But the Wilders never give up on their life or their love for each other.
On the Way Home: This is Laura's diary of her move to Mansfield, Missouri in 1894. With an opening and closing chapter by Rose Wilder Lane to give background and an ending to the story, it is a very good account of the trip to their new home. Some of the times they had were funny and some were hard and saddening, but they eventually got to what would become the Wilder home for the rest of their lives, Rocky Ridge Farm.
West From Home: This is a collection of letters, mostly from Laura (or Bess, as she was called) to her husband Manly, while on a trip to San Fransisco in 1915 to visit their daughter, Rose, who was, at this time, a newspaper reporter. This book shows how Laura was good at noticing everything and being the eyes for her husband back at home, skills she would later put to use in writing her Little House series.
From: webpages.marshall.edu/~hatcher3/lhbooks.html