William Nicholson, our April 2010 Guest Editor, on The Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder: "My younger sister's favourite books (there's a whole series of them) and ignored by me until I was grown up. How wrong I was. Not soupy girly stuff at all, real gritty pioneer life, and intensely moving."
The Little House on the Prairie is an autobiographical novel. It tells the story of the Ingalls family, who leave their little house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin and set out for the big skies of Kansas instead. Full of adventure and excitement, this classic tale is suitable for children aged 8+.
Laura Elizabeth Ingalls was born February 7, 1867, in a little log house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin. Laura's childhood was spent traveling west by covered wagon, to Indian Territory in Kansas, to Grasshopper Country in Minnesota, and then to Dakota Territory, where she met and married Almanzo Wilder.
Laura's daughter Rose grew up listening to her mother's stories of those pioneer days. She urged her mother to write them down so that other children could enjoy them, as well. So in the 1930s and 40s, Laura recorded her memories of those days of long ago in a children's series known as the "Little House"® books.
Although Laura died on February 10, 1957, at her home in the Ozarks of Missouri, she and her family will live forever in the hearts of her readers.
