Celebrate Little House, available once again with the classic Garth Williams artwork gracing the covers and black–and–white interiors.

Amie Rose Rotruck - Children's Literature

In the fifth "Little House" book, newly reissued, Wilder continues the chronicle based on her own life. After a bout with scarlet fever leaves the Ingalls family in debt and one member blind, they decide to head west where money and land are easier to find. A train ride is only the first of new experiences Laura encounters during the journey west. Rough railroad men, treacherous sloughs, and heavy blizzards make for a dangerous environment, but Laura does "not ever want to go back to Plum Creek," like her mother and sisters. After a winter in the surveyor's house, the family files a claim and begins work on their homestead, along with many other people in the new town of De Smet and the surrounding countryside. Laura "sees" all this verbally for her blind sister Mary and helps her learn how to sew and do household work. When the family finds out that there are colleges for the blind, Laura becomes determined to become a teacher and earn money so that Mary may go to school. Not only is the book a well-written continuation of the "Little House" series, it provides a good picture of what life was like in the early days of the west, "'Building over your head and under your feet.'" Fans of the original books will miss Garth Williams's wonderful illustrations. 2003, Avon, Ages 8 up.

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