Laura Ingalls Wilder (Author Spotlight)

My absolute favorite children’s writer is Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I have read her Little House series dozens of times starting in childhood and continuing on through the present.  I know that her books aren’t 100% true to her life, but I think they are an amazing story – told in a way that is appropriate for children – of what life was like growing up during pioneer times in America.

Here are the titles of the series in order:

1. Little House in the Big Woods
2. Farmer Boy
3. Little House on the Prairie
4. On the Banks of Plum Creek
5. By the Shores of Silver Lake
6. The Long Winter
7. Little Town on the Prairie
8. These Happy Golden Years
9. The First Four Years

I have read a number of other books related to Little House over the years, including the series that were written in the same style about her daughter Rose, her mother Caroline, her grandmother Charlotte, and her great-grandmother Martha.  I loved all of those.

Two books I have read recently which were inspired by the Little House series are Laura Ingalls Is Ruining My Life by Shelley Tougas and Caroline: Little House, Revisited by Sarah Miller.  The first one is a middle grade book about a girl whose mother moves them to Walnut Grove, where Laura Ingalls lived as a child, and her experiences there.  The second is a retelling of Little House on the Prairie from the perspective of Caroline, Laura’s mother.  Both were very good.