Little House on the Prairie: Full Color Edition (Little House, 3)

I purchased this book for my daughter for Christmas. She loves little house in the big woods which we have as a paperback and we have gotten little house on the prairie a few times from the library but can not ever make it through it before we have to return. So, I decided we should buy it. My daughter wanted the full color. I actually ended up getting it in full color and the original version with the sketches, both hardcover. I see the appeal of the full color. The images are gorgeous and what little girl wouldn't want to see Laura and her family come to life with color. I personally prefer the regular sketches overall. The full color versions pages are thick and sort of glossy white. The book is very heavy due to the thick pages. Nothing crazy but noticeably heavier than the regular version. Enough that you notice when you pick it up. I know my daughter will love it and I enjoy the color images as well, but I guess I had expected them to be on regular book paper and sort of subdued. They are extremely vibrant and quite lovely really..just different than I had expected. A nice special edition but if you like the feel of the regular pages and the beautiful black sketches you might not be as pleased with the full color version. I'm still going with 5 stars because it will be cherished I'm sure.

Collecting entire series here in hardcover. Just received one that has the new color pictures inside. It is a somewhat smaller book, in terms of its overall size, compared to my other, recently purchased, hardcovers. The new version is substantially more weighty to hold. Gone is the large font printed title along the binding. If you had thoughts of standing your entire series together on a bookshelf, but have not yet completed purchasing the entire series, you may be disappointed. I am. I prefer the book that is now replaced. I like holding the less weighty hardcover, and I also really liked the black and white pictures. I was happy about finding a book that was just like the one I remembered having found on a library shelf as a child. Sigh. But perhaps you will feel differently. I guess it comes down to a cost benefits determination.

I was disappointed in the color edition of Little House on the Prairie. It was too small, the coated pages were unpleasant to the touch, and the color obscured the lovely black and white drawings.

I like seeing the pictures in color, but I was hoping the book would be the same size as the other Little House hard cover books. As a child, I was given this series in paperback and I've always wanted to upgrade my collection to hardcover. Now I have to find this particular title in the same size that matches all the other ones in this series. This might not be a big deal to other people but I feel it'd be nice to have them match sitting on my book shelf instead of all the same size with one smaller than the rest.

As a young boy I read these books in a set. I loved them all. I know most people think they are more girly books but I disagree. They are excellent story books. And that appeals to both boys and girls.

I got this for my special needs daughter who HATES to read but loves 'Little House on the Prairie'. She loves it!

Little House on the Prairie has two little girls. The book is about a little girl named Laura. She meets many indians. One is very nice to her father. Her old house had too many people so her family moved to the Prairies. She had many adventures. This book is a very good book. It keeps me from watching the TV all the time. I really think everybody I know would like it.

(This is the same review I submitted to Goodreads.)

I really haven't read this book since I was eight. My views of different subjects have changed drastically since then. I am now well aware about what was happening in America during this time. When I was eight, I think what attracted me to this book was that Laura was my age. I wanted to see what her life was like during this time.

Since I haven't read this book in roughly ten years, I'm going to re-read it and review it again. One review is from what I remember as a child, and next week I'll go back and read the book, this time from a different view.

My review as an 8-yr-old (I want to say 1992):

I remember being excited that Charles wanted to move his family to the prairie. I don't remember why. I think it had something to do with Wisconsin being too crowded. I vaguely remember a section about Laura and Mary playing outside and being surprised when a new neighbor settled down miles from them.

I loved the part about their journey and Jack the bulldog walking faithfully beside the wagon. Then there was the frozen creek and the part where they made it across just before the ice broke. That scared me as a child because I kept thinking, "They could have died!"

As the story unfolds, we learn that Pa settles down and builds a cabin in Indian Territory, the family becomes sick and are nursed back to health by an African American doctor, Pa takes Mary and Laura to Indian creek where the girls bring back clay beads for Carrie. Then, the ending made me said. The family is forced off their land. Charles and Caroline have a garden that they will have to leave behind for the rabbits. Mary and Laura are cranky because they don't want to leave.

There was one part that stuck out in my mind. As the family is leaving they comes across an abandoned wagon with two people living inside. I don't remember why the couple is stranded. The book might have said something about the Indians stealing their horses? I don't remember. What I could think about was, "I hope they make it somewhere safe?" It worried me a lot as a child.

That is all I can remember. I seem to recall being upset when I asked the librarian why the Laura Ingalls books were considered fiction when she wrote about her childhood, and she replied with, "Because Laura made up a lot of stuff. She was old when she wrote the books and couldn't remember much." Arg

That's my 8-yr-old review. I'm going to start re-reading this now. I'll update my review in a few days.

Little House on the Prairie was given to me by my Great-Grandma Kile on my eighth birthday and was one of the most beloved books of my childhood. I read it so many times that it is a very tattered worn copy that is falling apart when I now read it to my children.

My sons are five and three and the loved listening to Little House on the Prairie. The three-year old did have some attention problems when the pictures were few and far between on some chapters, but the action always soon roped him back in.

The beginning of the book is the Ingalls family journey from Wisconsin to the prairies of Kansas. The journey is arduous, but also a great adventure. Jack the dog has a nail-biting adventure of his own, which left my kids in tears one night, but very happy another. Once they arrived in Kansas, Pa found the perfect spot to build their little log cabin on the prairie. The detail on how exactly the home was built including the stable, roof, chimney, and digging of the well intrigued my boys. I think Kile is ready to build his own cabin on the prairie.

The adventures continue while they are building the cabin and after they make it a home. They meet a bachelor neighbor named Mr. Edwards. Ma does not approve of his rough ways, but Laura takes an instant shine to him. Mr. Edwards helps Pa with putting the roof on the cabin and Pa helps him with his place. My favorite chapter of the book (and one of the boys' as well) is "Mr. Edwards Meets Santa Claus." After much rain, the Ingalls girls are told that Santa Claus will not be able to make it to their place for Christmas. Mr. Edwards meets Santa Claus in Independence and brings the Ingalls gifts over the flooded river to surprise them for Christmas. Even Ma's heart is melted towards Mr. Edwards as he relates his journey and he makes Laura and Mary's day complete. It is wonderful how the spirit of Christmas can be found in having a tin cup of your own. This chapter alone is one of my favorite Christmas stories.

Little House on the Prairie gives a view of the Native Americans as white settlers viewed them at the time. Although Pa seems more open minded then Ma, he is technically squatting on Indian reservation land that he has no right to be on. I never really thought about this when I was a child. After such comments in the book as "The only good Indian is a dead Indian," I tried to give the boys a more enlightened views of Native American/Settler relations. I told them how the Native Americans were here first and the settlers took the land away and there was much fighting involved. That didn't stop the boys from playing, "The Indians are going to attack!!" later that day. I tried!

It was an amazing life the settlers lived on the prairie. When the Ingalls family comes down with an illness and all pass out in their home, they are lucky that a passing Indian doctor (Dr. Tann) is able to help them to survive. I think it is interesting that Dr. Tann is actually an African American doctor. It is interesting to read about fascinating African Americans of the 19th century. A deadly prairie fire, chimney fire, and near fatality in the digging of the well, made one wonder how people survived. As my husband Ben said, many did not.

Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about the details of her life and I always consider this book to be "non-fiction." It is in reality historical fiction as Laura changed some facts to make the timeline smoother. The Little House on the Prairie adventures actually took place before Little House in the Big woods in real life and Laura was too little to remember.

Overall, Little House on the Prairie is a wonderful, enthralling, educational adventure story that is enjoyable for young boys, girls, and their parents.

This review was first posted on my blog, Laura's Reviews.

Review from re-read in 2016:
I’ve been rereading Little House on the Prairie over the last few months with my five-year old daughter Penelope. She goes in streaks where she wants a shorter picture book or is crying because we didn’t get to read “Little House” that evening. Little House on the Prairie is one of my favorite all-time books and it is always a joy for me to read it again.

Little House on the Prairie is the account of Laura Ingalls and her family’s journey from the Big Woods of Wisconsin to the prairies of Kansas. Too many people are moving to the Big Woods and driving out the game that Pa depends on for meat and furs to supplement the family’s income. Hearing a rumor that new land will be opening up in Kansas, Pa takes the family and makes a claim. They build a cabin, dig a well, and face a lot of excitement in the untamed land.

I love how descriptive Wilder is in the entire book. Her passages are lyrical and make be believe I can see the vastness and beauty of the prairie. For example, this passage:
“A hawk was sailing overhead. It was so close that Laura saw its cruel round eye turned downward to look at her. She saw its sharp beak and its savaged claws curled ready to pounce. But the hawk saw nothing but Laura and Mary and round empty holes in the ground. It sailed away, looking somewhere else for dinner.”

And this passage about wolves that have surrounded their cabin:

“Everything about him was big – his pointed ears, and his pointed mouth with the tongue hanging out, and his strong shoulders and legs, and his two paws side by side, and his tail curled around the squatting haunch. His coat was shaggy gray and his eyes were glittering green.”

Penelope loves the story overall, but especially identifies with the little girls Mary, Laura, and Carrie. She loves Mary because she has blond curls like herself and Carrie because she was a baby. As a child I identified with Laura as she shared my name and shared a lot of my thoughts about life. When I read this to my sons, they identified and loved Pa and how he spends this book constantly building things. They loved the action sequences as well. I think one of the secrets of why these books have remained favorites is that Wilder centers all of the action and thoughts through Laura as a little girl. It helps children to really identify with her and the story.

Two of my favorite narrative sequences in this novel are when the family crosses the river and loses Jack at the start of their voyage. Like Laura in the novel, this always makes me sad and it hooks the kids as well. My other favorite part is when Mr. Edwards meets Santa Claus. Mr. Edwards tells a great tale to the girls about meeting Santa Claus on his horse with a pack mule of presents and how he gave Laura and Mary’s presents to Mr. Edwards as he couldn’t get over the flooded river. The girls are overjoyed by their gifts and that Mr. Edwards actually met Santa Claus. Like Pa and Ma, I get choked up that Mr. Edwards went the extra effort and made it so the two little girls could have a happy Christmas. Their simple gifts and the joy they had receiving them really puts to shame all that we have now in the future when it comes to Christmas.

Having read background accounts of Little House and Pioneer Girl last year, I can see the craft that went into this novel. Laura was actually too small to remember going to Kansas as the family traveled there before she turned two from the Big Woods. They returned to the Big Woods after Kansas and that is what Laura remembered for the novel Little House in the Big Woods. Laura had to rely on memories of tales her family had told about living in Kansas and also visited the area as an adult to try to find where they had lived.

One part of the book that I luckily didn’t pick up on as a kid is Ma’s blatant racism when it comes to Native Americans. This was the attitudes of people at the time and I am also glad that it wasn’t white washed from history. I can understand why Ma is scared of the Native Americans, but I also read Pioneer Girl last year and discovered that the Ingalls actually settled in Kansas on the Osage Indian Reservation in hopes that the Indians would get kicked off their land and they could keep it. It puts an entirely different spin on the book now. Ma gets distressed that the Native Americans are always coming by and picking through things in the house. . . But the house is on the Native American land! No wonder they were upset about a new cabin being built.

“Ma said she didn’t know whether this was Indian Country or not. She didn’t know where the Kansas line was. But whether or no, the Indians would not be here long. Pa had word from a man in Washington that the Indian Territory would be open to settlement soon. It might already be open to settlement. They could not know, because Washington was so far away.”

This is one of Ma’s most disturbing remarks:
“Land knows, they’d never do anything with this country themselves. All they do is roam around like wild animals. Treaties, or not treaties, the land belongs to folks that will farm it. That’s only common sense and justice.” Wow – Ma shows a complete lack of understanding and empathy with the Native American Way of life, but I’m sure this was typical thoughts at the time. Luckily Pa has more empathy . . . but is still squatting on Native American land.

I’m also disturbed thinking about the vastness of the prairie back then. The entire Ingalls family is stricken with a sickness and is saved by an African American Doctor, Dr. Tan, who is working on the Indian reservation and happens to pass by the cabin and notice the distress. Mrs. Scott, a neighbor, comes to care for the family as “What are neighbors for but to help each other out?” I want to know more about Dr. Tan – he is a pioneer of his own time!

Overall, Little House on the Prairie is a great classic novel that explores the trials and tribulations of pioneers in the 19th century as they explored the west. It has beautiful descriptive language and does a great job of captivating children by telling the story through a child’s point of view. Ma’s racism is shocking to read now, but tells the tale of complete misunderstanding of the Native American people by White Americans at that time.

Book Source: I received my first copy of Little House on the Prairie on my 8th birthday from my Great –Grandma Kile. Unfortunately age and much love have led to the books starting to fall apart. I ordered a new set from Amazon.com to read with my kids.

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