This book is about a family that travels by horse drawn covered wagon to find a new place to live. Along they way they encounter many obsticals such as wild animals, and sickness. The story has many lessons to be learned such as how hard life used to be.

I love these books. I read them when I was in Middle School and I watched the TV program every night that it was on. Laura is awesome! I loved Pa too.

This book would be a good opener to studying the way life was back then. How settlers came to claim land to start a new life. How life was for the natives and the settlers. Great history leasons could come from this book.

I try to read a book from this series or the Green Gables series concurrently with other books. It reminds me of my childhood. ( )

At the beginning of this story, Pa Ingalls decides to sell the house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, and move to the Indian Territory near Kansas. Laura, Pa, Ma, and Mary and baby Carrie, move to Kansas. During the book, the Ingalls family becomes terribly ill from a disease called at that time "Fever 'n' Ague" later referred to as malaria. Mrs. Scott, another neighbor, takes care of the family while they are sick. Mr. Edwards, another neighbor, brings the children Christmas presents. In the spring the family plants a small farm and make Kansas their home. At the end of the book the family is told that the land must be vacated by settlers as it is not legally open to settlement yet, and Pa elects to leave the land and move before the Army forcibly requires him to abandon the land. ( )

Mary, Laura, and their family travel across the US in a covered wagon in search of a new home. Along the way, they learn how to survive the harsh prairie wilds, and experience the joys and tragedies of staking out a claim in new lands.

The Ingalls family moves on from the Big Woods to the Kansas Prairie.
I found this book to be extremely interesting to read. Wilder's descriptions are simple and fascinating. She makes it sound like anyone could build a log cabin, but doesn't trivialize the work. The only problem that could arise is the rather positive view of moving Indians around in support of white farmers. However, this could be used to start a discussion of how times have changed and the fear young children feel when they meet someone of a different race for the first time.
This book is still a classic and belongs in any library where readers want to learn about the "once upon a time" of the United States. ( )