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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
Read the full review here: http://newberyandbeyond.com/newbery-reviews-1941/
Not much really goes on, but it was tense to see if they would make it through the winter. I can't imagine worrying about heat and food. The amount of work they had to do to just survive is amazing. This series continues to be a great glimpse into the past.
This book, the sixth in the Little House series, follows the Ingalls family as they pass a treacherous, blizzard-laden winter in the town of De Smet. The town never gets more than a day or two between blizzards, and before long its residents - including the Ingalls family - are on the brink of starvation. It is only the heroic actions of Almanzo Wilder and Cap Garland that save them from certain doom.
As with the other Little House books, I re-read this with my daughter. Although the tale of near-doom held my attention, this book was on the repetitive side and I don't think the detailed retelling of every. single. blizzard was necessary. I do think this is instructive: we live much softer, easier lives than those settlers did and from the details provided it seems likely that the house was below freezing for much of the winter. As we recently lost power in our home for nine days, this is particularly relevant: we found the house uninhabitable at fifty degrees. The settlers in the town of De Smet had to contend with much more dire conditions in their homes - daily. It is also a reminder of what can happen when people / towns depend on others for sustenance or safety.
As with the other Little House books, I re-read this with my daughter. Although the tale of near-doom held my attention, this book was on the repetitive side and I don't think the detailed retelling of every. single. blizzard was necessary. I do think this is instructive: we live much softer, easier lives than those settlers did and from the details provided it seems likely that the house was below freezing for much of the winter. As we recently lost power in our home for nine days, this is particularly relevant: we found the house uninhabitable at fifty degrees. The settlers in the town of De Smet had to contend with much more dire conditions in their homes - daily. It is also a reminder of what can happen when people / towns depend on others for sustenance or safety.
In the previous Little House books I've always like the winter scenes -- the Ingalls family all safe and secure in their cabins/houses/dugouts with a fire burning and pa at the fiddle while the winds howl outside. In this book it's like Laura Ingalls Wilder got that feedback and said, "Oh they like the winter parts do they? I'll give them winter!" The whole book is the traumatic winter of seven months of blizzards. The break up of the supply chain for groceries out west only exacerbates the problems. The book had echoes to me of the COVID-19 pandemic -- stuck in a house, railing at non-human forces. One of my favorites since Little House in the Big Woods.
The pioneer experience as horror movie. Wilder's anything but nostalgic look back at a devastating Dakota winter cries out for the Steven King treatment. All the elements are there: creepy warnings from a wise old Indian, odd and disturbing animal behavior, nature perverted in deeply upsetting ways: the cattle suffocate when their own breath freezes them to the ground, an ordinary school day turns instantly into a struggle for survival. Even the reliably unflappable Pa becomes unhinged and screams at a wind that has become the personification of unrelenting, uncaring evil.
There's little of the Michael Landon warm fuzzies in this book. Although Wilder's story has its heroes, (notably her husband Almanzo) she makes it clear that surviving the pioneer experience depended on luck as much as skill or intelligence.
There's little of the Michael Landon warm fuzzies in this book. Although Wilder's story has its heroes, (notably her husband Almanzo) she makes it clear that surviving the pioneer experience depended on luck as much as skill or intelligence.
re-read. fairly un-racist, always end up cold after I read it. amazing they survived.
challenging
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
2025 - This is one of those heart series, though as an adult I can see the issues of the telling – as a kid I was all in. What was interesting to me on this read (reading because a Podcast that I am listening to has gotten to this installment,) was that Almanzo had seed wheat that he wasn’t selling, but he and Cap go strong-arm a settler who has seed wheat to make him sell. Anyway
2014 - The interesting flip side to the fact that the town grew up nearly overnight in the last book is the harsh winter with few provisions that the townspeople weather in this installment.
It was interesting to read how the hunger showed physically on Pa and the viewpoint of Royal and Manzo.
2014 - The interesting flip side to the fact that the town grew up nearly overnight in the last book is the harsh winter with few provisions that the townspeople weather in this installment.
It was interesting to read how the hunger showed physically on Pa and the viewpoint of Royal and Manzo.
emotional
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
This was another enjoyable book in the series. The girls are getting older and doing more. This one has a slightly different focus at times because of the storms that kept hitting the town. It was focused on the town a little and what they all did, as well as how the family survived.