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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
I'm happy to have read this, especially the very ending which ended with a tone of hope and looking onward amid hardships, but I probably won't reread this one.
emotional
sad
I'm glad to know what happened in the early years of Laura and Almanzo's marriage, but at the same time, not. It was depressing and the tone was so different from the other books in the series.
The feel of this book was different, and not as good as the previous ones. Understandably so, since she never edited it, but still.
That said, I did like it. My heart went out to the Wilders.
That said, I did like it. My heart went out to the Wilders.
We were a little disappointed with this installment to the series. Really, I think it should not have been added to the series as I don't think the author intended it to be. This was written in a very different tone and from a very serious perspective which is not in keeping with the rest of the books. In previous books they have been near starvation and yet the story is happy. Even though Almanzo and Laura face some really tough times in the first four years their struggles are no worse than the struggles ma and pa endured and yet the tone is so much different and so sad. And there doesn't really seem to be much story per se, just a chronicle of what happened with the occasional anecdote or dialog thrown in. This was obviously not the fleshed out story the others were and leaves kind of a bitter taste to the end of an otherwise lovely series.
I think this was definitely my favourite of the Little House books, though I definitely loved them all. I was so happy to see Laura get married and loved seeing her new life.
They should have stopped after 8. This one was just not as good.
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
According to what I've read, this was not published until after Laura's daughter, Rose, died. I did not read it with the girls, and I am glad I made that decision. The series - Little House in the Big Woods through These Happy Golden Years - was complete and had a happy ending. I don't blame Laura for not taking this one to the publisher. It begins before Laura and Almanzo were married (they married at the end of These Happy Golden Years) and goes through one hardship after another. 18 year old Laura tells Almanzo she doesn't want to be married to a farmer, basically doesn't want to be trapped as a farmer's wife, and she knows the struggles and hardships of farming in and out. Almanzo makes a deal with her to give him three years at it... and even after those three years weren't successful, he pushes on. There's a lot about debt, taxes, interest, bank notes... money worries in general. There's the hailstorm that destroyed their thousands of dollars' worth of wheat. There's the diphtheria that they both got, leaving Almanzo a little crippled for life (luckily Rose was spared). Speaking of Rose, the passage of her birth was poignant. There are more ruined crops. There's the birth of a son, his seizure and death, and then their entire house and almost ALL belongings burned down... in the same month. Then the book ends shortly after that. So sad.
See review for Little House #1 - adding Laura was totally right, farming is way tough. Sticking it out even after losing so much... she really loved Manly.