Wonderfully descriptive, exciting and memorable novel based on the author's experiences as a child in the pioneer days of the 1880's. She paints a vivid picture of the courage and enterprise of her family - Pa, Ma, big sister Mary and baby Carrie - as they trek from the Wisconsin woods across the lonely and hostile prairie to establish their own 'little house' and farmstead. Along the way they encounter wolves, forest fires, fever, and other hazards: the experiences of an American pioneer family were truly stranger than fiction.
Ingalls Wilder is a wonderful writer, conveying a rich picture of family life and the vast landscapes of the Western frontier. She writes about herself in the third person and emerges as an engaging, somewhat rebellious heroine, whose sibling rivalry with good-as-gold sister Mary rings all too true.
The discerning reader will not fail to be jarred by Pa's complacent attitude towards the displacement of the native American communities. Nonetheless, the author's powerful description of the Indian tribe moving in a long slow line over the horizon is both haunting and humane.
A great classic about an extraordinary period in American history. Put all thoughts of the saccharine TV series of the 1970s out of your mind.