Little House on the Prairie

Ingalls Wilder, L. (1935). Little House on the Prairie. Illustrated by Garth Williams. New York, NY: HarperCollins Children’s Books.

Brief Annotation: The Ingalls family embarks on their journey West to settle on new land. They have many struggles and triumphs as they build a new homestead and all it entails while encountering the animals of the wild and the harshness of the weather. They even have encounters with the “Indians”, which eventually run them out of their home after only being there for a year. The government realized they could not push the “Indians” any further West, so to avoid conflict, the Ingalls family packs up as much as they and leave in pursuit of a new place to call home.
Genre: Historical Fiction

Grade Level: Grade 3- Grade 6

Readers who will like this: Readers who have an interest in early settlers/pioneers and their lifestyles will like the year of Laura Ingalls life as told from this book. These same readers would be glad to know this is only one book from the series the author has written.

Response/Rating (1-4): The details about the year of life for the Ingalls family gives a reader an appreciation for how hard life would have been at this time. The way the author can recall such details about her childhood makes the book seem so rich and vivid and deserves to be rated a 4. This would be a great addition to a social studies or history lesson pertaining to the settlement of our country. Upper elementary students could read this book independently, but primary grades could have the series be read during a read-aloud.
One question you would ask before a read aloud: In looking at the cover of the book, how do you think life would be, having to travel by wagon?