Independent Reading Level: 4-6
Awards: N/A

3.5* ( )

Things I remembered with love from reading this as a child: eating cracklings, making a balloon from a pig’s bladder.

Things I did not remember or even notice: there are a lot of guns and spankings. I told my friend this could be retitled “Guns n Spankings”. I used this as a point of discussion with my children to cover how disobedience could lead to extreme consequences in a time and place without easy access to doctors and communication. We also compared it to an Old Testament style vs NT as we were reading the Old Testament concurrently. It was interesting to reread as an adult.

My kids enjoyed this very much and I did too. I personally chose to edit out some language I did not want my children to adopt. It definitely held up vs some other books I’ve reread as an adult.

TLDR if you practice gentle parenting you might want to preread. If you are pro 2A in theory but did not grow up with guns you might also be surprised.

If you grew up never playing with a pig’s bladder balloon, what can I say? Samesies. ( )

Re-reading Little House in the Big Woods this year brought back so many memories from my childhood. I used to read late at night when I was a kid, long after my parents had put us all to bed. It’s one of the reasons why I wear glasses now - I would spend hours reading by the light from the Jack-and-Jill bathroom between my room and my brothers’ room.

I loved reading this story again as an adult and found myself so intrigued by all of the ways the Ingalls family did things differently than we do in western society now. As someone who dreams of farming, enjoys gardening and growing food, and who loves to spend time in the kitchen processing and preserving a harvest, it was so fascinating to read about how Pa would smoke the meat they were putting up for winter or how the family got together to process their maple syrup for the year. It made me grateful for the convenience afforded to me today, but also made me yearn for a simpler way of living that involves a deeper connection to the land, a more grounded sense of place and a more holistic way of fostering community. I do look forward to reading the rest of the series again.

There are a couple of references in the book that are racist (primarily in song lyrics), which is why I did not give the story a full 5 star review. I would recommend having healthy conversations about this with your young ones who might read this book.
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27 copies