The Little House Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder: Books 1-4

There are a small handful of chapter books that I remember reading with my mom as a kid, and the Little House books are among those. We read Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie together, and I remember being fascinated by little Laura's pioneer life. I owned more books in the series, and I tried making my way through them multiple times on my own, but I lacked the stamina to stick with them back when I was in elementary school. 

I've always wanted to go back and actually finish them all, so I included them in my Classics Club Challenge. There are nine books in the original series, but I counted them as one entry on my list. With my school closed for the foreseeable future due to the Coronavirus, I figured that now was as good a time as any to power through them. As most of these books are quite short, I'm going to combine my reflections on them. This post will cover books one through four.

Little House in the Big Woods focuses on Laura Ingall's early childhood in the Wisconsin wilderness in 1871. Laura is only five years old at this time, and she lives with her Ma and Pa, her older sister Mary, and her baby sister Caroline. There isn't much of a plot in this novel; it mostly just goes through a year of her life in the woods. Her family's seasonal tasks and traditions are described as they work hard to run their little farming household. Activities like cooking, farming, hunting, and holiday gatherings fill the pages and paint the reader a picture of what life was like for a pioneer family in the 19th century.

This story is truly for very young readers. There is no drama or suspense, and nothing bad happens in it. Laura and her family live a very idyllic life, despite how hard they have to work each day. An atmosphere of wonder and love fills the text, and Laura's childlike fascination with everything from nature to chores to a new doll is fairly charming. Wilder's writing is simple and clear, and very quick to get through. This is the kind of book that is meant to be read out loud with a child, a chapter at a time before bed.

As this book isn't for adult readers, it feels strange to criticize it for not having an engaging plot, so I will refrain from going too deep into that. Its appeal definitely rests on nostalgia for older audiences. If I were reading this for the first time right now, I would not have enjoyed it. As it was, I thought this was a pleasant, but boring read that is clearly meant for little ones. On that note, though, I don't think modern children would fall in love with this the same way so many readers did in the past. Parts of it haven't aged particularly well. The gender roles are rigid, there are a few passages praising tiny waists and blonde hair for women, corporal punishment is used a few times, and, at one point, Pa entertains the family with a problematic song about a "darkey" named Uncle Ned. It's not quite fair to judge an older work by modern standards, of course, but I'm not sure this is the best choice for young kids anymore.

Imagine this: You are eight years old. You live on a farm with your family in the 1860s. It is your first year of school in a one-room schoolhouse, and the winter term has started. You generally like school well enough, but you are afraid to go these days. Five older boys from a bad section of town have started attending class, and they have a history of ruining school for everyone. Every year, they are disrespectful to the teacher until the teacher tries to give them a consequence. Once the teacher confronts them, they beat the teacher up. In response, the teachers quit, the school year ends, and the town must scramble to find a new teacher for the next year. This has happened every year for the past two years. Last year, the teacher ended up dying from the injuries he sustained at the hands of the boys.

This is why you are afraid to go to class. You like your teacher, and don't want to see him get beaten to death in front of you. You ask your father to do something about this, and his response is that "The teacher knows what he signed up for. Let him handle it himself." You feel helpless and sick as you go into school the next day.

As you feared, the boys are up to their old tricks in class. They return late from recess, and the teacher attempts to punish them. They crack their knuckles and charge the teacher, ready to beat him. The teacher, however, has a trick up his sleeve. He pulls a fifteen foot long ox whip out of his desk drawer and begins whipping the lead boy with it. The boy falls, screams, and begins to cry. He begs the teacher to stop, but the teacher continues to whip him. The boy's shirt is ripped and his arms are bloody. His four friends, terrified, escape through a window as the teacher whips the boy until he falls out of the door, which he slams and locks behind him. The teacher has won. Your school is safe. Your classmates cheer and rush home to tell their parents the good news. Thus begins Farmer Boy, the beloved children's classic novel and second book in the Little House series.

You honestly could have picked my jaw up off the floor after I read that. For a series known to be wholesome and mild, this was a startling plot element, to say the least. Maybe this hit me harder because I am a teacher, but I don't even have the words to express how puzzled and disturbed I was by this event. This surely can't be normal for this time period, right? These boys murdered someone and no one seemed to care! Why does no one talk about this when discussing this book?

Anyway, aside from this bizarre beginning, the rest of the story is a blandly pleasant account of young Almanzo Wilder's life on his family's farm in New York. Laura and the rest of the gang from Little House in the Big Woods aren't in this novel. Instead, it focuses entirely on the life of the man who will grow up to become Laura's husband. Much like the first book in the series though, there isn't much of a plot here; it follows the family through the course of a year and shows all of the different work that goes into running a household. Even at his young age, Almanzo is responsible for a myriad of chores involving livestock, farming, and food preparation. His biggest wish is to help his father train colts, but he is not allowed to try that task until he is older. In the meantime, he works hard to help his family and eats as much as he can in the hopes of speeding up his growing process.

Speaking of eating, descriptions of food take up an inordinate amount of space in this novel. The food on Almanzo's table is delicious and unlimited. He always has pockets full of cake, pie, cookies, and doughnuts. Multiple courses are served at each meal and everyone can eat as much as they want. It's seems like an unrealistic amount, but I'm not sure how much food would actually be served in a well-to-do, hardworking farm household in this time, so I can't be sure if it is or not. In any case, reading this will definitely make you hungry.

Overall, I liked Farmer Boy about as much as I like Little House in the Big Woods. It was a little bit boring and a little bit charming. Much like with the first book in the series, I think it relies on nostalgia for its enduring popularity. I can't see a lot of new young readers picking this up without a lot of parental influence. Parts of this haven't aged particularly well either - there is a lot of talk in this one about what is "boy's work" versus "girl's work," but I know those attitudes are accurate for their time period. There is also a very odd scene where a Native American competes alongside horses in a horse race and runs a mile in two minutes and forty seconds, tying the winning horse (yikes). However, at its heart, it's a sweet little story (teacher murdering aside) showing a peek of what life was like in the past.

Little House on the Prairie is probably the most well-known book in the Little House series, thanks to the TV show from the 1970s. My mom was a fan of it, which is why she introduced me to the books as a kid. This novel goes back to the Ingalls family (Pa, Ma. Mary, Laura, and baby Caroline), and rejoins them as they contemplate moving away from their little house in the Wisconsin wilderness.

As the story begins, Pa Ingalls decides that his corner of the woods has become too crowded. He has heard of wide open land and lots of opportunities on the Kansas prairie, so he packs everyone up into a covered wagon and they set off on a journey to find a new home. After traveling for hundreds of miles, Pa finds the perfect place and sets up a home there. The plot is told from Laura's point of view and follows the family as they build a house from the ground up and get used to prairie life.

There is a little bit more of a story contained in this entry to the series, as the family is working towards a goal of establishing themselves in their new home. They have also settled on Native American territory and the tensions between the white settlers and the natives form a big part of the end of the novel. There is more suspense and drama here to enjoy, but even so, this is still a book for very young readers. The majority of the plot focuses on home building, hunting, cooking, chores, and family life, and most of it is extremely wholesome.

What is not wholesome, however, is the depiction of the Native Americans throughout the story. Obviously, the time period in which this was written accounts for this, but parents who choose to read this novel with their children in modern times must be prepared to have a discussion about its content.  The Native Americans are routinely described using animalistic terms and stereotypes. A few characters are shown to be very prejudiced against them, with a few even going so far as to say that, "the only good Indian is a dead Indian." There is a general attitude of superiority on the part of the white characters as well; Ma regards the Native Americans with fear and loathing, and Pa, who is generally very friendly with his native neighbors, talks about how white people who will farm have a right to claim Indian territory. Even compared to the first two books in the series, this one has aged very poorly. The nostalgia for the TV series and people's fond memories of their childhood reading, however, make that an unpopular sentiment.

Those issues aside, I did enjoy Little House on the Prairie more than the previous two Little House books. It had more of a story to get into, and it was interesting to see what pioneer life was like. Most of it was very sweet and it had a pleasantly adventurous vibe. It does end with Pa pulling up stakes and moving again, so I'm interested to see how the family's adventures continue into book four.

On the Banks of Plum Creek picks up with the Ingalls family moving to a new home. Once Pa learned that the government was about to kick him out of his little house on the prairie because he built it on Native American land, he packed up the family once more to search for greener pastures. After another long journey in their covered wagon, the family settles on Plum Creek in Minnesota and starts setting up a new home.

The scenery in Plum Creek is beautiful, and little Laura loves playing on the grassy prairie and swimming in the creek. At first they live in a little dugout house on a piece of land that Pa trades his wagon for, but soon he borrows some money and builds a proper wooden house. As this location is within walking distance of a town, Laura and Mary start attending church and school for the first time and have to navigate social relationships with other kids.

Things start off well at first, but as the seasons change, some big problems emerge. A plague of grasshoppers destroys all the family's crops, and then an absolutely brutal winter puts everyone into danger of freezing. As the family struggles through a punishing year, they must find ways to stay positive and establish a successful home.

I think this book is the strongest in the series so far. There is more of a consistent plot, and it feels like things are actually happening in this story. The stakes were high in many scenes and there were a handful of very suspenseful moments. The chapters that dealt with the grasshoppers were particularly disturbing. The way Wilder describes them crawling all over everything and swarming into the Ingalls' house had me cringing. As an added bonus, there wasn't a bunch of objectionable content in this one either.

I started to glimpse a little more emotional complexity here are well. As the story is told from Laura's perspective, she often doesn't think to question anything her parents tell her. She views the world through her young, innocent eyes, and is content with very simple pleasures in life. Here though, as she is getting a little older, she is starting to notice more. She worries more in this book, takes on more responsibilities, and recognizes when her mother is trying to hide her emotions. I am hoping that as the books go on and Laura grows, the complexity will continue to increase.

While there were a lot of things I enjoyed about this entry to the series, I did start taking an active dislike to Pa here. I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to feel this way as a reader or not. Laura certainly thinks the world of him in the story. As an adult reader though, it's obvious that this man makes a lot of dangerous mistakes. For example, deciding to move away from his family, settling on Native American territory, and planting a ton of crops during something the locals called "grasshopper weather" all turn out terribly for the whole family. At one point, he even gets himself lost in a blizzard for three days and has to eat the children's Christmas candy to survive. I felt bad for poor Ma, who continues to go along with his overly ambitious and poorly researched plans only to end up struggling, often alone, to raise the girls and run the household while he scrambles to clean up his messes. He's one of those people who is always looking ahead for the next big opportunity, instead of appreciating what he already has. Thinking back, it's clear that the family has moved steadily downhill ever since leaving Wisconsin. Yet, everyone still acts as if he hung the moon. It's annoying to read, but I am actually really curious to see if he finally manages to make good decisions in the upcoming books.

So now that I have finished the first four books, I am almost halfway through the series. Each one has been a little bit better than the last. On the whole though, I am not enjoying them as much as I did when I was younger. They aren't bad by any means, but they also aren't as interesting as I'd hoped they would be. Regardless, I'm happy to continue on with the series and see how the family ends up. I will cover books five through nine in my next post.

Challenge Tally
Classics Club (#25 on my list): 69/100 

Total Books Read in 2020: 25