Friday Favorites: Little House on the Prairie

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Recommended For: All Ages

Rating: G

The Big Woods are getting too crowded.

Pa Ingalls decides to sell the little log house, and the family sets out for Indian country! They travel from Wisconsin to Kansas and there, finally, Pa builds their little house on the prairie. Sometimes farm life is difficult, even dangerous, but Laura and the family are kept busy and are happy with the promise of their new life on the prairie.

I've loved this book ever since I can remember, ever since I was really little and my mom read it to us. I've always loved all the Little House books, but this one used to be my favorite from when I couldn't read and made up words about the part of the story I knew went with which part of the book (I like the later ones with Almanzo more, now, though...). This book is probably one of the books we have the most copies of in the house, coming to a grand total of seven.

I honestly don't know what it is about this book that makes me like it so much. Maybe it's Mr. Edwards, maybe it's being all alone on an expanse of prairie, maybe it's the Indians, maybe it's that so much exciting stuff happens, I don't know, but it's always been intriguing to me. Maybe it's the characters. Laura Ingalls Wilder crafts her characters from real life so cleverly. The story just draws you in and doesn't let you go until you come to the last page. The Little House stories have drawn people back in time for ages. The characters seem so real and life-like. Laura in particular isn't lacking in flaws. And even though it's drawn from real-life, it isn't dull. It's educational, too, telling of a time in American history where the Indians' right to have the land they were promised was respected for once (though not for long. Those same Indians were pushed off their lands onto reservations later). It keeps in the fear and bravery and hardiness of the pioneers. And it makes them seem down-to-earth, not this separate race of people whose bravery and courage far exceeded our own. Laura Ingalls Wilder tells an intriguing story of a little girl growing up in the pioneer days. And this book happens to be my favorite.