This book discussed Laura Ingalls Wilders life during her first four years married to Almonzo Wilder. It talks of her and his struggles working as a farmer and a farmers wife. Where the only way to survive was to depend on the crops to get thier next paychecks. When the bad weather, leaves them cropless, Almonzo and Laura must work together to overcome every obstacle. Also, there is a new baby on the way, so not only do they have to prepare a stable life for them, they must also for their new arrival. Laura and Almonzo learn through their struggles to make it through with love.

I loved these series books. I have read some of the other Laura Ingalls Wilder books when I was younger, but haven't read this one. It also had some pictures, that gave a realization to what was going on with the story.

Some of the activities that I would do with this story would be invite someone out of the community to come talk with the children about what it was like to live back in the older days. Also students could have a frontier day, where they dress up in the bonnets, dresses, and suits and pretend to ride around on a horse and buggy.

Read these as a child and loved them all. I had the 9 boxed set volume.

Wilder did not finish revising this story for publication before her death, and it has a slightly different flavour than the other books in her series. It starts out with the story of her marriage that was described in "These Happy Golden Years," but without much embellishment and with a focus on Laura's worry about the struggles of marrying a farmer. The remainder of this novel lays bare the raw emotion that Laura must have experienced in coming to grips with her new adult life as a wife and mother during a series of economic trials, stripping away the fairy tale of "happily ever after" marriage and motherhood. While my life experiences have been completely different, I could totally relate my feelings on living on my own for the first time with what Laura was going through. This is a brutally honest portrayal of what pioneer life was really like; it lacks the polish of the other books in the Little House series, along with their sense that, thanks in part to Ma and Pa, everything would always be all right, but it displays the strength of character and attitude that must have characterised struggling farmers at the time, and perhaps still does to this day. ( )

The last book typically included in the Little House series is the least like the others. As it was never edited, it lacks the polish that the other books have, and is more frank than any of the others about some of the harder aspects of life for the young Wilder family. It deals with drought and hard weather, plagues, disease and debt. Laura and Almanzo deal with a lot in that first four years of their married life, trying to make things thrive on their claim in De Smet four the three year trial of farming (stretched to four for a 'grace' period). Despite some of the positive things that happen for them in this book, this is definitely the saddest of the series. It is good, but not something that I could see myself going back to when I want something sweet and light-hearted. ( )

The prose is unpolished, and it is quite clear that Wilder was not finished with this manuscript. In comparison with her early works, it falls flat. However I am VERY glad that they went ahead and published this "unfinished" work. It was a delight following up on what happened to Laura after the last book in the Little House series. There are some very amusing and tender scenes to be found within. Overall, a delightful insight into another time and place. ( )