Laura Ingalls Wilder – Cannonball Read 17

Childhood Nostalgia / American Propaganda

The Kachina Doll Mystery by Carolyn Keene

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

February 25, 2024 by Pooja Leave a Comment

I devoured both the Nancy Drew and Little House books when I was in elementary school, so it feels a little odd to read them in such close succession now. I still enjoy them, but I’ve rather lost the cuddly feeling since then. It’s more obvious to adult me that the books were written in the expectation of reaching a certain sort of child, and that child did not look like me. The Kachina Doll Mystery – 3 stars When Nancy Drew is summoned to […]

A single story told as though it’s the only one

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls WIlder

July 26, 2019 by Wanderlustful Leave a Comment

For those of you who missed reading this American children’s classic in your own youth, as I did, Little House on the Prairie is the second (or third, depending on whether you count Farmer Boy, apparently) in Ingalls’ multi-volume Little House set, after Little House in the Big Woods. It was my first foray in Ingalls’ works, and I don’t think I missed anything by starting out of order. The book kicks off with Pa Ingalls yearning for a place with less people (the Big […]

My favourite book of 2018

June 11, 2018 by llp 3 Comments

I know it is a terrible cliche, but every chapter inevitably had me thinking “this sounds familiar, I feel like we read this every day, the more things change…” While I did not grow up watching the television series, I was a voracious reader as a child, and repeatedly read The Little House of the Prairie series. I am also very interested in biographies of writers I enjoy, particularly when my perception of them isn’t particularly well matched by the reality (see also L. M. […]

Life Doesn’t Make Narrative Sense

March 4, 2018 by Ellesfena 8 Comments

I cannot review the Little House books without talking about this: these books are racist. I hope that teachers or parents who are introducing these books to children for the first time are having serious discussions with these kids about racism and colonialism, and how these attitudes influenced westward expansion. As I was rereading these books (which, by the way, I loved as a kid and reread many times), I couldn’t stop thinking about the word “pioneer,” which in this case is just a euphemism […]

The Real World: Little House on the Prairie

February 8, 2015 by ElCicco 7 Comments

I think I read all of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House” books when I was a kid and I watched the TV show for at least a few years when it ran. While I enjoyed the novels and the TV show, I don’t remember re-reading or re-watching them, so I am what you might call a casual fan as opposed to a fanatic. Still, when I read last summer that the “true story” of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life — in her own words — was […]

Laura Ingalls Wilder–in her own voice

December 30, 2014 by bonnie Leave a Comment

I grew up reading Laura Ingalls Wilder’s novels as a little girl, and I make a sojourn through the Little House series every few years. As a lifelong Midwesterner, The Long Winter is a personal favorite (perhaps because I relate to it, especially this past winter). I remember from pieces of autobiographies that Ingalls had left some details out, including the death of her baby brother, which is never mentioned in the series at all. I was curious to see how Wilder’s actual life stacked […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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