What do You think about Little House In The Big Woods (2007)?
I didn't usually like girly books when I was a kid, but this one was an exception. Her matter-of-fact descriptions of life in the Big Woods were just so fascinating! The fact that the main character was a girl seemed pretty irrelevant.Beth Ann and I have several times discussed writing a modern-day sequel entitled Little House in the Valley. Laura gets up early every morning to sort the spam and check the website. Then she squeezes orange juice and makes two big lattes for Daddy and his boyfriend...
—Manny
My mom read this series to me when I was young, and I've held a soft spot for them ever since. So, it was wonderful to read them again as an adult and find Laura Ingalls Wilder's writing just as intriguing, captivating, fascinating and beautifully sweet!Laura is only about three years old here, and the story centers around one year in her life. In addition to Laura there is her older sister Mary, and Ma, Pa, and Baby Carrie. The first thing that struck me upon rereading this was how "slow" it initially seemed. Compared to all the middle-grade action/adventure books I typically read and love, here, all we really talked about was food and food preparation. And yet, after a few pages I realized I was somehow completely sucked in and really wanted to know just how things were done then. In chapters that follow things get more exciting - there are bear encounters, trips to town (can you imagine having never seen a town, never having seen even two houses together before?), cougars, bee attacks, harvests and even a dance at Grandma and Grandpa's where everyone gets dressed in their finest!I was also amazed at how many things had stayed with me from just one reading years and years ago! Vivid images and recollections of scenes that obviously intrigued me to know end - and, frankly, still do! (The maple sugar sweets, for one!)Laura Ingalls Wilder never uses a big vocabulary, so her books can appeal to a huge age range! And even with the limited vocabulary, she's somehow always so descriptive and you get a real sense for how each character feels and what they believe. This, in combination with the wonderful illustrations by Garth Williams is like a very clear window into life in the Big Woods.After the first few chapters, once I got into the flow of the story, I found myself wanting to constantly pick up the book and read the next chapter. There are so many fantastic stories, too, and there are wonderful messages on practically each page. The messages are never heavy hitting, but they are there simply in the way the story unfolds. Everything from self-reliance, responsibility, hard work, sharing, caring, listening, truthfulness, progress, respect, even environmentalism! It sounds all quite boring laid out like this, but these characteristics are woven into exciting stories in Laura's life or tales her Pa tells her of him as a boy or family.It's very clear how much Laura loves her family, and the insights she brings to the book - to life - are incredible and touching!I love this book so much it's hard for me to write a good review of it, but I hope you'll pick it up, give it a few chapters to adjust to the pace, and then become just as captivated as I was - and fall just as much in love.
—Ann
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder is an exquisite set of books that I cherished growing up. Read until they were dog-eared, this series has to be one of my childhood favorites. A story about a young girl growing up on the frontier, it was so popular they made it into a T.V. series even though the series didn't do it justice. Stories as a young girl I could relate to, the mean girl in town, fights with my sisters, and just the struggles of everyday life of any family. The love Ma and Pa had for each other showed through so much so, that even today I can still see Caroline's eye's sparkling bright blue as Pa whirled her around the dance floor. This series is a perfect example of a story well told. When you're there in Laura's life so much that you can feel her fear when in trouble, or you can taste the penny candy on Christmas, that's a story. I have no doubt this will be a children's classic for years to come. I highly recommend it. Note: Reading again with my son, what a joy to see him loving these too! We've even started watching the tv series along with the reading!ClassicsDefined.com
—midnightfaerie
