And now to Minnesota!

On the Banks of Plum Creek 

by Laura Ingalls Wilder

In the fourth installment of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series, 

Ma, Pa, Mary, Laura, and Carrie end up in Walnut Grove, Minnesota.

And poor Jack! He's stuck, yet again, traveling on foot! :( 
Jack is the family dog who perhaps wishes he could travel with a family 
that believed in letting the canine companion RIDE in the wagon rather than WALK with it!

I'm fairly certain I qualify as the world's worst Read-Along cohost!
Here it is the last day of the month and 
I am just now posting my review! 

I read the book one week ago but had neither the time nor the energy to blog! :(
But, I did JUST make the April deadline! :)


Bex of An Armchair by the Sea is my cohost for this 
Little House Read-Along 2016! (#littlehouseRAL)
Click here to access my Little House Read-Along page which now lists all the review links for each book in one place!
My favorite book of this series thus far has been Farmer Boy, which we read and reviewed just last month (March). 
I guess that proves I am still a 'tom-boy' at heart!
The first house they inhabit in Minnesota happens 
to be a "dugout" which is exactly as it sounds--
literally dug out of a creek bank!
Now that is smart! Talk about 'thermo-efficient'!
It reminded me of our 'dream house'--an Earthship!
Though not all Earthships are underground, the most sustainable style is pretty much a 'dugout' with all glass 
across the front which can be solar collectors.

Ah...maybe in our next lifetime my husband and I will find each other again, when we are much younger and physically able to make the earth-packed tires, etc., ourselves! 
That would be fun! And the design possibilities are endless and so creative and unique!
Uh-hum...now...back to the Ingalls' 'dugout'...


The book cover on the right shows the dugout,
as does Garth Williams'
illustration to the left.
The big danger here was from the water rising too much and flooding the interior of the house, and/or large animals stepping through the 
turf 'roof'! 
Which did happen! 
Can you imagine? 

Laura is quite sad that Pa had to trade Pet and Patty, and Bunny, the long-eared colt, for the house. Though Pa patiently explains,

"Why, little half-pint. Pet and Patty like to travel. They are little Indian ponies, Laura, and plowing is too hard work for them. They will be much happier traveling out west. 
You wouldn't want to keep them here, breaking their hearts on a plow." (7)

I adore Pa's kindhearted explanations! And that nickname "half-pint" never ceases to make me smile and/or chuckle to myself! As they all sat outside the door of their new home, Ma 

...drew a long breath. "It is all so tame and peaceful," she said. "There will be no wolves or Indians howling tonight. I haven't felt so safe and at rest since I don't know when." 
Pa's slow voice answered, "We're safe enough, all right. Nothing can happen here."
The peaceful colors went all around the rim of the sky. The willows breathed and the water talked to itself in the dusk. The land was dark gray. The sky was light gray and stars prickled through it. (17)

I love those last two lines, describing their surroundings/the landscape. I felt my own heart rate and breathing slow as I read it--just as if I was sitting there with them in that calm peacefulness. But I drastically miss living in the country, being surrounded by nature. :) 

Once Laura confesses her attempt to go to the swimming hole, after being strictly forbidden to ever go there without Pa, Pa must decide upon an appropriate punishment. He finally decided that she must be "watched" all the next day to determine whether she was capable of ever being trusted again. Since he had to work, Ma agreed to do the "watching" and Laura mustn't move out of her mother's line of sight the next day--all day.

 The whole day was gone. Laura had not seen that sunrise, now the shadows of clouds on the prairie. The morning-glories were withered and that day's blue flags were dead. All day Laura had not seen the water running in the creek, the little fishes in it, and the water-bugs skating over it. She was sure that being good could never be as hard as being watched. (36)

Lesson learned! Ma accompanied her the next day as they retraced her steps toward the swimming hole, looking for the badger that had disrupted her progress. They did discover the hole where it evidently made its home, but never did see the animal itself. Badgers have a reputation for not being exactly 'friendly,' so I'd say Laura was fairly lucky overall in this encounter! 

As Laura and Mary tried to reconcile the concept of Santa Claus visiting them throughout the night of Christmas Eve with the fact that the dugout had no chimney for Santa's use. Ma explained, 

"The older you are, the more you know about Santa Claus," she said. "You are so big now, you know he can't be just one man, don't you? You know he is everywhere on Christmas Eve. He is in the Big Woods, and in Indian Territory, and far away in New York State, and here. He comes down all the chimneys at the same time. You know that, don't you?"

Then Ma told them something else about Santa Claus. He was everywhere, and besides that, he was all the time. Whenever anyone was unselfish, that was Santa Claus. 

Christmas Eve was the time when everybody was unselfish. On that one night, Santa Claus was everywhere, because everybody, all together, stopped being selfish and wanted other people to be happy. And in the morning you saw what that had done.

"If everybody wanted everybody else to be happy, all the time, then would it be Christmas all the time?" Laura asked, and Ma said, "Yes, Laura." (85-86)

And it was this information that convinced both Laura and Mary to wish for something as seemingly mundane and "every day" as horses so that Pa would be able to plant wheat and make money. I cannot remember ever reading a better, more 'rational'/moralistic/optimistic explanation of the concept of 'Santa Claus.' Wish I had read this book prior to raising my own children! I would have had a ready explanation for them! :) 

Pa had tuned his fiddle and now he set it against his shoulder. Overhead the wind went wailing lonely in the cold dark. But in the dugout everything was snug and cosy. 

Bits of fire-light came through the seams of the stove and twinkled on Ma's steel knitting needles and tried to catch Pa's elbow. In the shadows the bow was dancing, on the floor Pa's toe was tapping, and the merry music hid the lonely crying of the wind. (88)

Pa is a driven individual who remains optimistic and is determined to do better for himself, but especially to provide for his family. 

"A dugout is snug and cozy," said Ma. "But I do feel like an animal penned up for the winter."

"Never mind, Caroline," Pa said. "We'll have a good house next year." 

His eyes shone and his voice was like singing. "And good horses, and a buggy to boot! 

I'll take you riding, dressed up in silks! Think, Caroline--this level, rich land, not a stone or a stump to contend with, and only three miles from a railroad! 

We can sell every grain of wheat we raise!" (82)

You could say Pa was a "dreamer." This series has opened my eyes to the fact that pioneers on the frontier were also motivated to better themselves financially, to have and own more and better "things." I just never considered they had much motivation other than 'making it on their own' and settling where no one else, or at least few others, had settled. And the overarching goal of survival, of course! It just rather surprises me to see this concept of 'consumerism' as part of their lives and their motivation to succeed. I think I somehow assumed that was a more recent outgrowth of 'modern life' as we know it. :) 

Once the wheat had pushed through the ground like "a faint green mist on that brown field," Pa surprised them all by returning from town with a load of lumber with which to build their house. He had purchased the lumber on credit and would pay for it when the wheat was harvested and sold...ah, but little did any of them know what would happen to that first wheat crop, and the implications for future growing seasons. As can happen, all did not proceed according to plan once the grasshoppers arrived. :( The concept of "credit" was quite different back then. Whereas in our 'modern world' the Ingalls would have most definitely been foreclosed upon and lost their home, Pa was allowed to pay as he could, even going many months paying little to nothing. I was glad for them! I admit that I was just a tad bit disappointed at all the 'modern' conveniences Pa employed in erecting this newest house in Minnesota. I missed the detailed descriptions of the more primitive implements and processes he had used in building the other homes. Though I was glad the Ingalls had a house with "real glass windows"! 

I might not have believed it possible that grasshoppers could totally decimate all the vegetation if I hadn't seen it happen with my own eyes! Though not with grasshoppers, but with Japanese bean beetles! When my children were young, my ex-husband and I raised a HUGE garden every year! We were living in an area where these little critters could become hoards and multitudes with the correct weather conditions. We were using Sevin the first couple of years to keep insects from eating the garden. (Yes, we were initially that  uninformed and ignorant regarding the use of such chemical applications.) Once they got started, there was no stopping them. One morning we awoke to a faint 'buzzing' noise and when we went outside, we realized that four trees a former owner had planted were literally COVERED in these insects, and roughly 1/4-1/3 of the foliage was already gone! It was absolutely unbelievable! These trees were so tall it was difficult to even get any of this poisonous chemical spray into the upper portions. That was when I researched Japanese bean beetles (long before internet access) and discovered a relatively new invention of pheromone traps. This proved the only true method of controlling these voracious "beasts"! Though collecting and burning those traps (All four of them were totally full at least once a day for the first 10 days!) was an unpleasant task, to say the least! We had at least learned our lesson. While these topical chemicals sound so efficient and effective, in reality, they only keep the insects moving on to other plants, in a never-ending cycle that can culminate in mass destruction! Pheromone traps had a constant presence in our yard/garden area each growing season thereafter! Problem solved. :) I could relate to the Ingalls as they battled these insects, though I could only imagine walking on a carpet of grasshoppers in every inch of land! Yuck! But I don't believe anything existed which could have been used to prevent this particular disaster. :( 

And it wasn't just grasshoppers! There were plenty of other dangers present in this environment! Laura fell off the board across the stream when the water was running high and the current was strong, and was barely able to save herself by clinging to the board and eventually pulling herself out of the water! I admit my heart was pounding as I read this scene! Even though I KNOW Laura survived! That thought never crossed my mind, I was so immersed in her immediate danger! Badgers were perhaps the least of it! And they had to fight a prairie fire to save their homestead. If not for the help of their neighbor, Mr. Nelson, their homestead might have 'gone up in smoke'!

When he had gone away [Ma] said, "There is nothing in the world so good as good neighbors." (275)

This was especially true since poor Almonzo had to travel hundreds of miles and be gone many months to find work due to the nonexistent wheat crops. This left Ma and the children to manage on their own! 

The water seemed to offer endless challenges to Laura, who came out after wading and swimming one day to discover "bloodsuckers"/leeches attached to her. Though this petrified her, it played to her advantage when she determinedly got back at Nellie. Yes, we meet Nellie Oleson in this book! Nellie must have been a rather miserable old soul in a child's body. Naturally, the Oleson house was unbelievably beautiful to Laura. Although she now had a 'real' house built of sawed lumber with 'real' glass windows, the Oleson's house was decorated and furnished much more lavishly than any Laura had ever seen! And Nellie had such beautiful dolls, so much fancier than Laura's own rag doll or the paper dolls with which they played. (I had kinda forgotten about paper dolls! I had some, too!) Though Nellie was anxious to "show off" her "china" and "wax" dolls to all the other little girls, she was furious when Laura reached out and touched her favorite doll's blue silk dress! She snatched it away.

"Don't you touch her!" Nellie screeched. "You keep your hands off my doll, Laura Ingalls!" 

Laura's face burned hot and the other girls did not know what to do. (166)

I felt so very sorry for Laura! She simply withdrew from the group and sat by herself on a chair. Mrs. Oleson gave her some books to look at and she was enthralled, especially with the one entitled Mother Goose. 

She had not known there were such wonderful books in the world. On every page of that book there was a picture and a rhyme. Laura could read some of them. She forgot all about the party. (167)

Yipes! This sounded just like something I would do. Though as a 7-year-old child, I might have wrestled Nellie to the ground until she said "uncle" as I had done with a fellow kindergartner at the age of 5! :) I can remember as a teenager being invited to a birthday party by the "popular" (and I thought 'sophisticated') girls in my high school. My mother was terribly excited since she considered this to be quite a social coup for me. I remember downplaying it and stating that I didn't know what to expect but doubted it would be much fun. I was back home within 45 minutes. (That included the 10-minute drive to the girl's house.) Mother was shocked, asking me what had happened. I simply replied that after 20-30 minutes of dull and boring conversation (about boys, dating, clothes, and gossip about others) I decided I would be much happier at home reading, sewing, or just listening to music! I'm pretty sure mother dropped any social ambitions she might have held for me in the future at that point. :) So, yeah, I could relate to Laura's withdrawal from the party. (For some reason, this group kept asking me to their get-togethers several more times and I kept making excuses until they finally quit. Sheesh!) 

It wasn't until Ma reciprocated by having all the little girls out to the Ingall's house for a fancy party that Laura was able to exact revenge upon Nellie. And did she ever! Let's just say that once some of the girls, including Nellie had decided to hold up their dresses and wade out into the creek, Nellie got a surprise after coming out and seeing "bloodsuckers" on her legs! Of course, Laura had been 'guiding' the girls into certain areas of the water... ;) It wasn't until Mary threatened to tell Ma what she had done that Laura finally began pulling them off Nellie! Before that she was too busy rolling around on the ground laughing at and making fun of her "dancing around"! 

I wondered if Ma was aware of the irony of her serving "vanity" cakes which were 

"...not sweet. But they were rich and crisp, and hollow inside. Each one was like a great bubble. 

The crisp bits of it melted on the tongue." (175)

This description had me saying "yum" to myself! Ma said they were called "vanity cakes" 

"Because they are all puffed up, like vanity, with nothing solid inside." (176)

Hmmm...wonder if she had anyone specific in mind. :)

Being only a couple of miles from town, Ma and Pa take the girls to church regularly and a preacher from the East travels out to preach one Sunday per month. He decorated a Christmas tree in the church with donated items from families back East and distributed those items to the church attendees. Through this the children each received several presents including candy, mittens, and a rag doll with a china head for Carrie. Then the best gift of all was a fur cape and muff for Laura. As soon as she saw it on the tree she wanted it, especially since Nellie had a fur cape. Laura magnanimously wished Nellie a "Merry Christmas" as they exited the church.

No wickedness boiled up in Laura now; she only felt a little bit of mean gladness...

Her cape was prettier than Nellie's, and Nellie had no muff. (158)

Ah, a bit of the 'green monster' for Laura! :)

The last bit of disaster was a blizzard. These storms could blow up very unexpectedly (No weather reports to listen to or watch back then!). An unprepared person could very easily perish. Luckily, though Pa got caught on foot between town and home, as he kept walking, he inadvertently dropped through a snow drift that provided shelter from the cold wind and was able to last until the wind died down enough he could dig his way out and continue toward home, which was much closer than he thought it might be. 

One bit of simplistic tool creation and usage was the fish trap Pa made. Though I searched, I was unable to find the illustration from the book. It was basically a "skeleton box":

It was a long, narrow box without a top, and Pa left wide cracks between the strips of wood...

"The fish will come over the falls into the trap, and the little ones will go out through the cracks, but the big ones can't. They can't climb back up the falls. So they'll have to stay swimming in the box until I come and take them out." (136)

Very smart! I can appreciate his ingenuity and know-how!

I did feel very sorry for Laura when Ma gave Charlotte away to another little girl. Just like that! Just gave her away as if she had the right to do so! I was a bit upset with Ma over that. And although Laura is eventually reunited with Charlotte, Ma had to rebuild the doll as it was quite damaged. I could understand Laura's anger and then disappointment. 

Pa's reference to Laura as "little half-pint of sweet cider" is adorable and is one of my favorite parts of this whole series!

I have droned on and on, but this book offered so much material! 

Have you read this one? Or any of this series?

What is your favorite? Or which book are you most interested in reading?

We would love to hear your thoughts!

And now for Almanzo!

Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder

By far my favorite book in this series! At least at this point!

I was such a tomboy as a child, and I could relate so well to Almanzo!
I was raised on a farm and ALWAYS LOVED working with animals!
We start in the year 1866 in northern New York state...

Awww...this just makes me sigh...it is so idyllic!

The cover on my copy.

While as an adult I have performed all the tasks associated with raising a family and caring for a home, honestly, I always loved being active on my grandmother's farm, especially with regard to activities thought to be more appropriate for "males" than "females"! Perhaps this is one reason I much preferred living in the country, raising a HUGE garden, preserving our own food as much as possible, and exposing my sons to raising livestock, as opposed to working outside the home and living "in town." I wouldn't trade those first 13 years of my first marriage for anything! It was during this time that I learned more about nature, human and otherwise, than in any other period of my life! It was an amazing time for me in so many ways...

Particularly, as a 'displaced teacher,' I was appalled by the teenage bullies, "the Hardscrabble Boys," who were allowed to physically attack the schoolteachers and run them out. 

  They boasted that no teacher could finish the winter term in that school, 

and no teacher ever had. (5)

As I read this, I said aloud to myself, "Really?!? Are you kidding me?!?" But, no, it was no joke, it was the truth! And...to make matters even worse (at least in my opinion), their fathers were fine with this behavior--even proud of their sons! All the younger children were so worried for Mr. Corse who was gentle and patient and in no way "big enough to fight them." One day all the boys were late in returning from lunch-time recess, but Mr. Corse said,

  "I will overlook your tardiness this one time. But do not let it happen again."

  Everybody knew the big boys would be tardy again. Mr. Corse could not punish them 

because they could thrash him, and that was what they meant to do. (12)

It just so happened that Mr. Corse was staying with Wilder family during this time. (Teachers were on a rotating schedule to board with the various families whose children attended school; there was no separate housing provided for a teacher.) Almanzo's father spoke of them to Mr. Corse,

  "They have driven out two teachers."..."

Last year they hurt Jonas Lane so bad he died of it later." 

  "I know,...Jonas Lane and I went to school together. He was my friend." (29)

Reading this passage caused me to yell out loud, "Oh. My. Goodness! They were allowed to murder a teacher and no one cared?!?" Then I realized that Mr. Corse evidently came prepared, since he was well aware of last year's murder, for it was exactly that! And had he! As Almanzo later learned, his father was responsible for the teacher's ability to handle these bullies! Almanzo was both surprised and proud that his father had been so smart! And the relief! I felt so sorry for Almanzo being so scared for his teacher! I could see how he would use these same skills to become such a kind and caring father to his own children in adulthood.

 

As you can see from these cover images, one of the big stories in the book described Almanzo training the two calves, Star and Bright. 
One snowy morning Almanzo's father reminds him today is his birthday...
he is 9 years old! But he had forgotten! 
That made me think about the huge ordeals most of us make 
over our children's birthdays now... 

  "There's something for you in the woodshed," Father said. (49)

According to his Mother, he couldn't leave his seat until he had eaten his breakfast, however. 

  Then he ate as fast as he could, and she said: "Don't take such big mouthfuls." 

  Mothers always fuss about the way you eat. You can hardly eat any way that pleases them. (50)

It must seem that way to children at times. When we really just want them to be safe--no choking, etc.--if at all possible! I couldn't help thinking it might have been better for his father to give him this news once he had finished eating breakfast, but I suspect his father was just about as excited as he was. :) Father had crafted a little calf yoke so he could 'break' Star and Bright, the two young oxen. It was amazing to read the details of this process. Although Almanzo fashioned his own whip to use while training them,

He never whipped them; he only cracked the whip. 

  He knew you could never teach an animal anything if you struck it, or even shouted at it angrily. He must always be gentle, and quiet, and patient, even when they made mistakes. 

Star and Bright must like him and trust him and know he would never hurt them, for if they were once afraid of him they would never be good, willing, hard-working oxen. (98-99)

And now we know why his father's horses were "the best" in all the region... He obviously knew how to treat his animals and had taught his son the same. Though it seemed like Almanzo was always a really good kid, even he could sometimes do the wrong thing. It was great to see his father handle it well and not get angry with his son; he just made sure the boy had learned his lesson. One thing Almanzo wants more than anything is to break one of the colts, but his father insists he is too young and inexperienced. His older brother, Royal, is the only one allowed to be with the colts. This is a constant frustration for Almanzo. We discover he even eats just as much as he can at every meal thinking it will make him grow faster so he can work with the colts sooner! 

Both Royal and Almanzo get to skip school to help with the ice cutting. This was such an arduous process! So much heavy work! And dangerous! One slip and you could be in that ice-cold water and under the ice in no time with no one able to rescue you! Almanzo almost was! Those close enough to him were able to grab him as he was falling and keep him safe on the ice. Needless to say, Father was not happy! Though he chose not to whip Almanzo, made it clear the boy was to stay well away from the edge, which he did from them on...with no complaints! Then there was butchering. For the hogs:

The hams and shoulders they slid carefully into barrels of brown pork-pickle , which Mother had made of salt, maple sugar, saltpeter and water, boiled together. 

Pork-pickle had a stinging smell that felt like a sneeze. (280)

And yes, that was me...laughing yet again! The mention of saltpeter made me search the Merriam-Webster dictionary. It is a naturally existing white powder found in some soils--used as a fertilizer, in medicine, and to make gunpowder! It is this last item that I remembered having learned long ago. And yet it could also be used in a brine to preserve meat? That is one very versatile substance! :)

I loved the scene where their cousin Frank was bragging and showing off his brand new "store-boughten cap"! This cap had ear-flaps that would button up on top of the cap when not in use. Almanzo wanted one. 

  Royal said it was a silly cap. He said to Frank, 

"What's the sense of ear-flaps that button over the top? Nobody has ears on top of his head." 

So Almanzo knew that Royal wanted a cap like that, too. (91-92)

I laughed out loud at this! So true, isn't it? Many times when kids make fun of something you have, it is the result of envy. :)

Sundays would have been torturous for me. Go to church, sit for hours without squirming or doing anything but sitting still and then the rest of the day only talking quietly and not being able to really DO anything! Yikes! Resting is one thing, but when you're a child...you want to get up and go! :) At least I did! And the joy that Almanzo got from rainy days when he and his father went fishing! Those were joyous times for him and they seemed to be good at it! But they had to wait until it rained, otherwise, there was always work to be done! 

Sheep shearing! I actually helped my uncle on several different occasions with shearing sheep. Well...we didn't do the shearing, other people came to do that, but we had to herd the sheep and run them into the pens, etc. (Told you I loved this book with all the farm animal stuff!) I never will forget the trouble my uncle had with the ram! He was mean and fully determined NOT to do what you wanted him to do! Period! I was grateful to be young and lithe and able to avoid his head-butts! (Basically, I worked at staying out of his way altogether! To say I had a healthy respect for him was a drastic understatement!) These sheep were particularly difficult to shear...

Their long shears snipped through the thick wool like lightning; 

they cut close to the sheep, but never cut its pink skin. 

This was a hard thing to do, because Father's sheep were prize Merinos. 

Merinos have the finest wool, but their skin lies in deep wrinkles, 

and it is hard to get all the wool without cutting them. (158)

I had no idea of this fact! Amazing, isn't it? It seems the 'better' things are always harder to get, doesn't it? Reading of Almanzo's little break in his trips with the wool bundles as he tracked the mama cat back to her kittens brought back memories of discovering nests of baby mice and kittens in the haymow of my grandmother's barn when I was young! Though I wasn't shirking responsibility as was Almanzo! 

Father describes the settlement of the U.S. to Almanzo:

  "...we were farmers, son; we wanted the land. It was farmers that went over the mountains, and cleared the land, and settled it, and farmed it, and hung on to the farms.

This country goes three thousand miles west, now. It goes 'way out beyond Kansas, 

and beyond the Great American Desert, over mountains bigger than these mountains, 

and down to the Pacific Ocean. It's the biggest country in the world, and it was farmers who took all that country and made it America, son. Don't you ever forget that." (189)

I have always said farming is not 'a job,' but a lifestyle. I miss it. Father is obviously a fierce defender of farming and what he says is true, settlement further west was initiated by farmers first, and as we have learned in the first two books, it was very hard work and could be very lonely...and dangerous to be one of those settlers!

I have raised pumpkins but never heard of a "milk-fed pumpkin" before now! I did know that if you wanted a larger end product, you simply plucked blooms, forcing the plant to concentrate its growing energy on fewer pumpkins or tomatoes or whatever, thereby making them larger though fewer of them. But feeding a pumpkin milk? That was news to me! I could relate to Almanzo's anxiety as the judges considered the pumpkins at the annual fair! I was very glad for him winning with his pumpkin! What a thrill! 

I admit to cringing when I realized their parents were leaving Royal, Eliza Jane, Alice, and Almanzo in charge of the farm for a whole week while they visited relatives. They eat virtually all the store-bought white sugar and rather than keeping up with the daily chores, let it all go until the day before their parents are due to return. Almanzo's temper gets the best of him and he ends up throwing the blacking-brush at Eliza Jane, misses her, and splatters a nice black patch on Mother's sitting room wallpaper. He agonizes for two whole days once his parents return, awaiting their discovery of the damage. When visitors arrive that second evening he is panic-stricken, though at the same time anxious for the dread to be over and done. What he didn't know was that Eliza Jane had secretly patched the wallpaper so that none of the "black spotch" was visible. Almonzo apologizes to Eliza Jane for getting angry, and she states, 

"I guess I was aggravating,...but I didn't mean to be. You're the only little brother I've got."

Almanzo had never known before how much he liked Eliza Jane.

They never never told about the black splotch on the parlor wall, and Mother never knew. (227)

Awww... 

And then the time came when his three siblings were sent off to school and he became the only child left at home. Father immediately started letting him do more. They made a bobsled so he could haul wood from the timber using Star and Bright to pull the loads. He put many hours in helping reload logs and turning the sled upright, digging the steers out of the deep snow when they got off the road, and encouraging them to reenter the road and keep on trudging. But eventually they all three learned to work together. Almanzo was made to return to school, mainly to learn arithmetic and he studied hard.

I found it so heartwarming that Almanzo's parents were disappointed that Royal, the oldest son had no interest in farming, and were hopeful that Almanzo would...but then the wheelwright offered an apprenticeship to Almanzo, they feared he would want to pursue that as a career instead. I was glad to see that his parents were evidently more liberal-minded than many and rather than force Almanzo to do their bidding, they allowed him to make the choice. Though they were quite pleased that he was determined to keep on farming...and then he received the biggest reward of all. Instead of letting Almanzo purchase a colt with the money he had put in the bank, Father just gave him Starlight, the colt he had wanted all along. 

When the liveryman told father Almanzo was smart, Father replied,

  "Time will show...Many a good beginning makes a bad ending. 

It remains to be seen how he turns out in the long run." (351)

Although it seemed a bit hard-hearted, there is some truth to it...and I feel Almonzo turned out to be a very good man. Would you agree?

Which book is your favorite of this series?

Mine is Farmer Boy so far...we'll see if that changes.

Little House Read-Along for January: Little House in the Big Woods

And here we are! Into the new year of 2016!!
It will be a "wilder" one for at least 13 of us who are currently registered to participate in the Little House Read-Along for this new year! 

You can register here on my blog, or here at Bex's blog, An Armchair by the Sea!
Each posting will be linked on my LH R-A page here.

You can participate in whatever way suits you!

You are welcome to use the Linky below to link directly to your review on a blog or other social media site such as Goodreads, or if you prefer to simply post comments on each monthly review post, that certainly works, too!

Whatever works for you works for us! 
And again, you can post from either of our blogs and it will show on both of them!
Also, we'll be posting on Twitter #littlehouseRAL!

This month's read is Little House in the Big Woods. 

I am so very excited to get started! My set just arrived today, as well as my beautiful copy of Pioneer Girl. I admit to having already read several of the books we will read after these first 9 and I am fascinated by this story, not only of these books and Laura's life, but how they were actually written and published!

Please use the Linky below to link to a review during this month of January. It would be great if all of us who are participating this month could have them posted and linked here by January 31st!

I'm hoping to read this book over the first week of January. 

I think I'm just too excited to wait! :)

ANNOUNCEMENT: Little House Read-Along for 2016!

It's almost here! 
The end of 2015 and the beginning of a "Wilder" 2016!! 
I love this graphic Bex created! (She's the talented one!) :)

I have wanted to read all the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder for longer than I can remember--
probably as soon as I discovered them! 
How I ever missed them as a child I will never know...but...
that doesn't mean I can't read them now!
And...so can you! Along with Bex and me!
Twitter--#littlehouseRAL

This series was published about 20 years before I was born. 

I can only assume they were in my local library, but I sure didn't realize they were! 

However, I am prepared to 'right this wrong' in 2016!

I did watch the TV series as a child and loved it and I am certain I will love these books!

So, grab your best friend, daughter or son, granddaughter or grandson, niece or nephew, next-door neighbor, blogging friend, any reader in your life and join in! Or just bring yourself!

You will have the opportunity to connect and discuss with others across the globe as we launch into what I'm sure will be an exhilarating reading experience!

We will read the nine books from the boxed set and three (or four) more. 

You can purchase these if you like or check them out from your local library! 

I can't wait to get the set and then send it off to my grandchildren once I've read them all 

at the end of next year. Just in time for End-of-Year giving 

and probably good timing for the age of readers in that household! 

You can purchase from your local independent bookstore, Barnes & Noble  
or Books-A-Million, and there is always Amazon. 
This could be added to your very own "wishlist" as a gift! 

This is a great opportunity to read a whole set of books that qualifies for The Classics Club! This is particularly pertinent for their Women's Classic Literature 2016 event!
In addition, I will count these toward my Historical Fiction reads!

We will read one book per month of the Laura Ingalls Wilder series of Little House books. 

Here is the reading schedule:

                    January 2016            Little House in the Big Woods

                    February 2016           Little House on the Prairie

                    March 2016               Farmer Boy

                    April 2016                  On the Banks of Plum Creek

                    May 2016                  By the Shores of Silver Lake

                    June 2016                 The Long Winter

                    July 2016                   Little Town on the Prairie

                    August 2016              These Happy Golden Years

                    September 2016       The First Four Years

                    October 2016            On the Way Home: The Diary of a Trip from South                                                                       Dakota to Mansfield, Missouri, in 1894 by Laura                                                                           Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane

                    November 2016        West From Home: Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder,                                                                        San Francisco, 1915 by Laura Ingalls Wilder,                                                                              Roger Lea Macbride, Margot Patterson Doss

                    December 2016        A Wilder Rose by Susan Wittig Albert and/or
                                                     Pioneer Girl by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Pamela Smith Hill

The Albert book, A Wilder Rose, is a well-researched accounting of the literary partnership between Laura and her daughter, Rose. Although they co-wrote this series, they did not make others aware of the collaboration--everyone thought Laura was the sole author.(And yes, this is the same Susan Wittig Albert who writes three series: China Bayles, The Darling Dahlias, and The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter.)

Pioneer Girl is an annotated autobiography and is a bit of a chunkster at 400 pages. 

Please feel free to commit to the whole read-along or you can read only certain books, or jump in and out as you please during the year. We do ask that you use the link below (Crossing my fingers that it will work!) to connect directly to an introductory posting or page on your blog specifically for the Little House Read-Along, and please feel free to use Bex's beautiful graphic on these postings! If you do not have a blog, do not despair! You can still easily participate! There will be introductory posts at the beginning of each month with a link to connect to your review, which could be posted on Goodreads or another similar forum. Or...if you simply wish to participate by commenting, that certainly works, too! 

I'm sure we'll all be commenting on everyone else's reviews, etc., which is the hope!
Sharing is the goal! 
You can follow along each month on my Little House Read-Along 2016 page 
as all postings will be linked there.

Did you know this series of books has its own website? How cool is that?!? 

Additionally, Emily of The Bookshelf of Emily J is a huge fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder and this past spring she visited the Laura Ingalls Wilder house and museum in Mansfield, Missouri. 
I love the pictures and her descriptions of this experience in the posting. 
(I will link to some of her postings as we progress...)

Have you read any or all of these books before? Or will this be a reread?
It's my first time and I cannot wait! Bex and I are both beyond excited!
Feel free to register below with a link to your introductory posting/page!