Publisher and Publication Date: HarperCollins. 1932. The edition I read is 2016.
Genre: Children’s literature. Historical fiction.
Format: e-Book. Kindle edition.
Pages: 224.
Source: Public library.
Rating: Excellent.
Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957)
Further links to read about the author or series: Biography/ History Timeline for the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder/ Little House on the Prairie/ Pioneer Girl Project/ Laura Ingalls Park and Museum.
Link for the book at Amazon/ Barnes and Noble/ Abe Books/ ThriftBooks.
Book one in the series.
Summary:
Big Woods of Wisconsin.
The year is 1869.
Laura was 2 years old when she and family left the Big Woods of Wisconsin and travel by wagon to a new life on the Kansas prairie.
They left behind their warm log home, garden, farm, and large extended family.
They took their little Brindle Bulldog, Jack. He trotted along under the wagon.
Before they leave their home in the Big Woods, I am given an education about their life of living on the land. Pa fishes and hunts for deer. I am told how he prepares the fish and meat for storage and eating later. They have a garden. They kill and hog, and they use all of it for either eating or use in something else.
The travel is treacherous. A story of them crossing a frozen lake is concerning.
The faithful bulldog has a difficult life following the wagon. He is actually tied up, so if he stumbles etc.—that is not a good result.
My Thoughts:
I like all of the Little House series. Little House in the Big Woods is one of my favorites.
I expressed in the previous review of Farmer Boy my thoughts about the criticism of the books. Laura Ingalls Wilder lived in history. People in history don’t think or act as people in the modern world. She was born in the 19th century. Her knowledge and understanding of people were not from school, social media, work, being out in the public, traveling-especially travel to another country, or other media that would give her an education about people groups. She learned from her own family and close friends about “other types of people.” It does not make it okay to use words about other people groups that are discriminating or disrespectful. In addition, words are changing even now. The words used to describe people and groups of people. I just read collective nouns are becoming common in reference to groups of people. And the term that was once used-Indian or American Indian, moved to Native American, and now, another term is used, Indigenous People.
What I love about Little House in the Big Woods is that it is a children’s story about a little girl, and so it holds an innocence about her outlook on life and especially in regard to her family. I can read the story without thinking about “why is she not using better language about other people groups.” She is a little girl, and she lives in a small world surrounded by her family who also lives in their own small world. Society has not gotten to the point where they understand that it is not polite and respectful to use certain words.
Little girls generally idolize their parents. My own maternal grandmother who was raised primarily by her Papa because her mother had died after giving birth to a 6th baby, she idolized her father. Even as an 80-year-old woman she idolized him. In reminiscing she called him her “dear Papa.”
Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote the stories from the voice and perspective of the child that she was at the time of the stories. She did not add her knowledge and feelings as an adult in retrospect.
The first reason I love Little House in the Big Woods is it is an endearing and loving story. I want to clarify. The story is not perfect. The story is not biographical. The story is based on her life. And it is from the voice of a child. I still love the endearing and enduring nature of the story.
Generations of children, boys and girls, have read the series of books and learned about life in 19th century in America. White Americans. Farmers. And a family that loved each other deeply and stayed together. They persevered through natural disasters, and farming disasters, sicknesses, poverty, and wrong choices.
It must have been difficult to leave behind the secure comforts of the log cabin in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, and travel to an unknown area-A.K.A.-a wilderness. Ma Ingalls packed up and moved. Obeying her husband’s wishes. I do not know if she questioned him behind closed doors about this decision. In the year of 2024, I am not relocating by covered wagon to an unknown area because my husband has a bee in his bonnet. But in the mid 1800s, women-most women obeyed.
I love how Pa is playful with his children. Their Ma is serious-minded. Their Pa takes the time to play with his children.
I love the illustrations by Garth Williams. He also illustrated the book, Charlotte’s Web.
I enjoyed reading about how they live off of the land. How they use all of a hog, not wasting. How the fish is caught and salted down to preserve. How they gathered walnuts and other types of nuts outdoors to eat and preserve. I love how they celebrate Christmas.
I felt sorry for Jack. The little dog who had a feisty temperament. I worried more about him in the travel then the Ingalls family.