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Summary: Little House in the Woods
Review: Laura Ingalls Wilder worked hard helping her parents keep the little house safe from the winter cold and big animals but then the spring comes and Laura and her family make it through the harse winter days.I agree with how the author made her exciting story so interesting.She made her story descriptive and ,made me want to keep reading.Isaw how her illustrations bropught her words to life .I really agreed with the author's perspective of the 1800's .I would reccomend this book to my friend because she also reads Laura Ingalls Wilder books and I think she would enjoy it.I would reccomend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about the pioneer years.I would not reccomend this book to people who like alot of action because it does not have alot of action in the book.This book was really good.
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Summary: Good book - but not as good as the ones that follow.
Review: I'm a huge fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder and fondly remember reading the Little House books when I was a child. I've just started reading the series to my 7-year-old daughter, though, and while she loved Little House on the Prairie, she was far less fond of this one. In fact, although she's usually a good listener, I found her attention constantly wandering as we read this book. And in all honesty, I could understand why. Laura Ingalls Wilder is without a doubt one of the best children's writers who ever lived, but I think she had barely begun to show her enormous talent when she wrote this book. Although there are wonderful little snippets of family life, and a few hints of the conflicts between the feisty Laura and her more reserved and perfect sister Mary, the truth is, there isn't much of a plot here. And Mrs. Wilder goes on for page after page describing how bullets were made, or butter churned. There are probably children who find that fascinating, God bless them, but my daughter was just bored by it. I don't think this is a BAD book, but Little House on the Prairie is so much better, so much more interesting that I think if you want to read the series to a young child, that's the place to start, even though this is the first book in the series. This is a book for children who have already fallen in love with Laura and her wonderful family.
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Summary: Makes you go back in Time!!!
Review: This book shows what it was like back in the 1800's. It tells when they had to travel by wagons and you couldn't go to town everyday. This is a GREAT book and I hope that everybody reads it. I recommend this especially to the people that lives in the cities because you see what the backwoods are like and how it is kind of today!!!
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Summary: A vivid portrait of pioneer life
Review: "Once upon a time, sixty years ago, a little girl lived in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, in a little gray house made of logs." So begins "Little House in the Big Woods," by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The book tells the story of young Laura, a pioneer girl who lives with her Pa, Ma, sister Mary, baby sister Carrie, bulldog Jack, and Black Susan the cat. This book is a richly detailed portrait of pioneer life. There isn't much of a plot; the book is basically a record of the day-to-day lives of this hardy pioneer family. The book goes into fascinating detail about the family's activities: butchering a hog, smoking meat, churning butter, making bullets, fiddling, harvesting maple syrup, and more. Also fascinating are the characters' encounters with the various wild animals of the big woods--some dangerous, some cute. The characters are memorable. Ma is the quintessential pioneer woman: hard-working and resourceful. I really got the sense that she's the glue that holds the family together. Pa is a particularly colorful and lovable character: a hunter, trapper, and farmer who is also a musician and a master storyteller. Indeed, the oral tradition of storytelling is an important motif in the book. It's fascinating to escape to a world without DVDs, movie theaters, CDs, cable television, the Internet, or the other modern things we take for granted. This book takes us back to such a world, and reveals it to be a colorful and fascinating place.
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Summary: Best of the series
Review: I am an 8 year old girl who loves the Little House series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Why I liked it is because it's so happy and because I liked the little girls. My favourite part is when they go to a dance at Grandma's house and Laura danced with her uncle. I would recommend this book for people who like to read happy books.
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Summary: Glimpses of the Past
Review: Life is hard living on the frontier of Wisconsin in the 1870's. Laura is only a little girl, but she still needs to help with chorus around her family's log cabin. There are wild animals in the woods, and they must provide for themselves since the nearest town in hours away. But it's not all hard work. If Pa's not tired, he might entertain his daughters with a story or by playing his fiddle. With family relatively nearby to visit, life is certainly never dull. I had not read these books since I was a child until picking this up to reread. I had forgotten how entertaining they really are. There is no real plot, just a collection of stories covering a year in the life of the Ingalls family. This makes sense since they really are an autobiographical work. Still, the simple charm of the stories sucked me right in and I had a hard time putting the book down. There is plenty of detail here to give anyone a good picture of daily life during this time. And I must mention the illustrations by Garth Williams that greatly add to the book. There's a reason these books are so well loved 70 years after they were written. They are an entertaining look at everyday life in a different time and place. This is a book to treasure.
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Summary: A Childrens Classic
Review: The first book of the Little House series that has become an (North) American classic. When I first read this book as a child I was thoroughly mesmerized by Wilder's evocative portrayal of pioneer life in the "big woods" of western Wisconsin. The book's pertinant underlying theme is the importance of the family unit, and the perserverance of the human spirit through times of hardship. It should not be forgotten, however, that the book is an idealization, a toned-down version, of pioneer life. Wilder was later accused of distorting and fabricating her stories, an aligation which shocked her because it had been her intention to write stories, not history. But that, I guess, is irrelevant to the children that this book--and those of the series--was intended for.
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Summary: I love this book!
Review: Little House in the Big Woods is fantastic! Laura celebrates her fifth birthday and Christmas with her family. She and her sister Mary get to go to town with their parents for the first time. And every night, Laura and Mary and Baby Carrie feel safe and sound as Pa's fiddle sends them off to sleep.
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Summary: Little House in the Wrong Voice
Review: My wife and I were delighted when our 5-year-old daughter received the CD version of Little House in the Big Woods from her godmother for Christmas. Needless to say, the book is part of a series which is a timeless American classic, one which transports children to a world of simplicity and substance. All in all, it's a wonderful antidote to today's culture of babble and hype. Alas, from almost the first few spoken sentences my wife and I felt the voice of the reader was terribly wrong. For starters, Ms. Jones sounds as if she comes from the South, so the intonation just seems a little off-pitch for a story set in the north woods. More importantly, in trying to articulate each word clearly, she seems to adopt a cadence that is simply too deliberate and measured. Everything about her delivery sounds as if she's, well, reading a book - an old one, at that - rather than telling a story. She rarely alters her cadence or pitch, so she seldom conveys any of the excitement or fascination of the material. And in the places where the description itself may be a little too dry or detailed, she does little vocally to alter those problems. We hate to be so critical, but my wife (a first-grade teacher) and I both were terribly disappointed. Even our daughter, who is a keen listener, tired of the narrative after 15-20 minutes. We expect she'll return to it, and we may be inspired to read it aloud ourselves - and hope to do a better job. Perhaps we've been spoiled by Meryl Streep's various audio recordings, or perhaps it's just a matter of taste, but to our ears the Harpers editors/producers simply chose the wrong person or didn't give her good advice. Surely Ms. Jones is a marvelous actress, but every week on the radio we hear any number of women reporters and readers who would breathe more life into this story. In short: good book, poor disc.
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Summary: Charming Childhood
Review: This is the first book in the "Little House" series. It is a little boring compared to the next 2 books but it is fun meeting Laura and her family. You see the world in the eyes of a five-year-old. It is a snuggly world. She plays with big sister Mary(6), cousins come on Christmas, and they go to a dance at grandma's where they meet many, many relatives. One cousin is another little girl named Laura Ingalls! The two fight over who's baby sister is cutest. Some chapters seem to be long decriptions of how to make things like shelves and bullets for the rifle. If you're not interested in these things, it might get a little boring at this point. Hang in there, because Laura is adorable, and you're only five once!
Get to know them now, because the adventures continue in the next book, and the next book. Everyone is growing up, don't miss their precious childhood! Sometimes I wish they never moved out of their little house in the big woods.
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