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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
This was always my favorite of the Little House books; I like stories where people are pitted against nature. I've since read that the Snow Winter of 1880/1881 was not quite as intense as this, but it's understandable that she would write it this way. If the trains couldn't get through, they would have been struggling to survive even if there had been fewer blizzards.
Early in the book there is an incident where an old Indian comes into town and warns the men that the winter will be very bad. It's not as racist as it could have been, but it's not awesome either.
Early in the book there is an incident where an old Indian comes into town and warns the men that the winter will be very bad. It's not as racist as it could have been, but it's not awesome either.
When your mom is a librarian, she forces you to wait to read this until it actually is winter. Unfortunately, it's a winter that isn't super child or snowy, so the effect isn't quite what she hoped for.
Given the amount of snow we have on the ground right now and in the upcoming forecast, this story felt appropriate.
It’s a tale of a bitter winter. Of making do and doing without. Of pulling together as a family. Of finding joy in the little things when little things were all you had.
This is probably the darkest/most serious Little House book, and I had forgotten just how difficult things were. A small prairie town that faced food and heat shortages during perhaps the worst winter the region has ever seen and yet they were ingenious and resilient. It was literally a fight for survival with every page.
I had also forgotten this was when Laura met her future husband Almonzo Wilder… So much beauty amid the darkness!
It’s a tale of a bitter winter. Of making do and doing without. Of pulling together as a family. Of finding joy in the little things when little things were all you had.
This is probably the darkest/most serious Little House book, and I had forgotten just how difficult things were. A small prairie town that faced food and heat shortages during perhaps the worst winter the region has ever seen and yet they were ingenious and resilient. It was literally a fight for survival with every page.
I had also forgotten this was when Laura met her future husband Almonzo Wilder… So much beauty amid the darkness!
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
This book chilled me to the bone and left the gnawing pain of hunger in my stomach.
We finally finished! We took way too long reading this book with many breaks in between readings, so we may have enjoyed it more if we read it straight through. My goodness! How they survived that winter at all is a wonder! And how hard they worked and how people came together to help one another -- heartwarming. At the end I could feel the joy they must have felt to know that winter was over!
I am consistently amazed at how the Ingalls family and so many others lived through so many hardships over 150 years ago with such positivity and enthusiasm. Charles Ingalls is always happy to tackle the haying, care for the animals or building of just about anything. It doesn't matter how hard the task is or how long it takes, he always does it with a smile on his face and sings afterwards. Not even the children complain very much, even when they are bored and starving. They are happy for what they do have and it's a stark contrast to the way children and even adults are today. The way that the Ingalls family and the rest of the townsfolk of De Smet made it through the ridiculously long winter is truly a wonder.
This was one of my favorite Little House stories as a child, and it is still a wonderful, engaging story, even today. There are a few things I picked up on as an adult that rub me the wrong way, however. Almanzo Wilder always seems to have plenty of food. Whenever Charles visits them across the road, they are always having pancakes, bacon and syrup, even when the Ingalls family is surviving solely on old potatoes and coarse brown bread. They never offer to share. Almanzo won't give up his seed, even when folks in the town are starving, but he goes out into the driving blizzard, risking his life to guilt someone else out of their seed, when they were saving it for the same purpose- to sow in the spring. He seems awfully selfish to me.
All in all, I do love the way that Laura's way of life is preserved in these stories, as well as the songs they used to sing and the food they used to eat and how they would go to school. It is a completely different world compared to today, and I'm always happy to lose myself in the pages of the past.
This was one of my favorite Little House stories as a child, and it is still a wonderful, engaging story, even today. There are a few things I picked up on as an adult that rub me the wrong way, however. Almanzo Wilder always seems to have plenty of food. Whenever Charles visits them across the road, they are always having pancakes, bacon and syrup, even when the Ingalls family is surviving solely on old potatoes and coarse brown bread. They never offer to share. Almanzo won't give up his seed, even when folks in the town are starving, but he goes out into the driving blizzard, risking his life to guilt someone else out of their seed, when they were saving it for the same purpose- to sow in the spring. He seems awfully selfish to me.
All in all, I do love the way that Laura's way of life is preserved in these stories, as well as the songs they used to sing and the food they used to eat and how they would go to school. It is a completely different world compared to today, and I'm always happy to lose myself in the pages of the past.
Of all the Little House books, this one has the most memories for me. I took it with me to read while I stayed with my grandmother one hot summer in Oklahoma. The contrast of my sweaty body sitting in front of her window unit while I read about them fighting a blizzard is one that always makes me smile.
Oh man, what a delight this was to read again. This series was a favorite of mine when I was a child, and I reread the whole series when my own kids were young. With the cold winter weather we had this past week, I was inspired to pick this old favorite up and read it again, and, once again, it did not disappoint. Wilder's writing is such a comfort to me, reading her books is like curling up in a blanket on the sofa with a warm cup of tea or eating some comfort food your mother made when you were little. I think I may have to start at the beginning and reread the whole series again! Just delightful.
lighthearted
relaxing
tense
medium-paced