Too Good to Be Altogether Lost: Rediscovering Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House Books

by Pamela Smith Hill

Pamela Smith Hill delves into Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House novels, examining their texts, characters, settings, and themes to reveal how the books forever changed the literary landscape of children’s and young adult literature in ways that remain meaningful today.
 

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Books About Books, Biography, Biography Memoir, Literature, Literary Criticism

384 pages, Hardcover

Published July 1, 2025

About the author

Pamela Smith Hill grew up in Springfield, Missouri. One of her greatest inspirations is Jo March from "Little Women."

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

ARC for review. To be published July 1, 2025.

5 stars

A revisitation of the Little House series which, I guess, have fallen out of favor since she’s now been labeled as racist (this is crazy to me. How was a woman writing in the 1930s to write about the attitudes of the 1870s? I read these books as a young child and I remember reading a secondary character (not Ma) saying, “The only good Indian is a dead Indian,” and totally being able to understand that while that may have been an attitude of yesteryear, and likely misguided then, because we stole their land, that it certainly didn’t apply today AND I WAS ABOUT NINE WHEN I UNDERSTOOD THESE THINGS.)

Anyway, hence the title, the point being that these books have so much to offer that it is counterproductive to toss them aside because of a minstrel show and a few other, definitely outdated, but historically accurate scenes. Each book is examined individually and I loved having the chance to revisit each…I probably read each one ten times.

So, fans will love this, and for those who aren’t sure about LIW’s place in today’s world of children’s literature, this is worth a look. I loved this, both for the stories and the premise.

[Tammy Buchli · Rating 5 out of 5]

I approached this book with some trepidation. I am a big fan of the Little House books and have been distressed by the presentism that has threatened Wilder’s legacy in recent decades. Hill manages to avoid that trap in this excellent book. She doesn’t ignore or downplay the racist episodes in the books, but places them into the appropriate historical context.
This a scholarly book, but quite accessible to non-scholars - well-cited, respectful and affectionate without being in any way fawning or fan girlish.
I should confess that at least part of my delight with the book had to do with the fact that, in every usual area of dispute about Wilder’s work, Hill came down on my side. This meant I could enjoy the deep dive into one of my favorite literary subjects without feeling I had to mentally fight with the author over whether or not Rose really wrote the Little House books, or whether Pa was a hero or a heel.
I just loved this book.

[Randee Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fans of Laura Ingalls and the Little House series will enjoy TOO GOOD TO BE ALTOGETHER LOST. The Little House series were my favorite books when I was a kid, and I read them more times than I can count. As an adult, I am still fascinated by Wilder and read just about every book that’s published about her. In recent years, Wilder has been vilified for including scenes in her novel that, judged by today’s standards, are considered racist. Because of this, some of her novels have been banned. Her contributions to children’s and young adult literature have been discredited and ignored. Pamela Hill Smith does not shy away from those disputed situations. Instead of maligning Wilder or twisting the facts, Smith puts those scenes into the historical context of the time period during which the novels are set. It was so nice to read a scholarly work about Wilder that is once again in support of the woman and her works.

Throughout TOO GOOD TO BE ALTOGETHER LOST, Smith examines Wilder’s original Pioneer Girl manuscript that was meant to be a non-fiction story about her childhood and compares it to what was eventually published as the nine novels in the Little House series. She also breaks down each novel with detailed explanations of what is so unique and revolutionary about these novels. Reading the Little House series today, we might not see them as breakthrough novels in children’s or young adult literature. But, when the books were published back in the 1930s and 1940s, Wilder was redefining children’s and young adult literature. Despite objections from her daughter and publisher, Wilder stayed true to her vision and included stories/situations that were not typically included in children’s stories. Relying on her personal experiences, Wilder created the fictional Laura Ingalls as a character that her readers could grow and mature alongside as they read the series. I know that I did. The Little House series was a big part of my childhood, and it was heartwarming to read Hill’s arguments on why these novels continue to be relevant for today’s young readers. As the title suggests, Wilder’s stories are TOO GOOD TO BE ALTOGETHER LOST.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

[Adam Carman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was, like many, a diehard Little House fan as a kid. I particularly enjoyed By the Shores of Silver Lake and Little Town on the Prairie. Since I've grown older and wiser, I was of course aware that a storm of controversy has grown around them in recent years. Was Laura Ingalls Wilder even the main writer of the books or was that her more established writer daughter, Rose Wilder Lane? Were the Ingalls hopelessly racist and did Laura include stereotypes and racial issues in the books? Does she deserve to be recognized as a giant of American literature? These are the questions Pamela Hill sets out to tackle.

Lest anyone be gearing up to protest already, Hill states clearly that Wilder had limited exposure to African-Americans and thus a somewhat narrow view of them. And her family was undoubtedly part of the westward movement that displaced Indigenous people and partook of many of the current prejudices towards those people. There is no full throated defense of American racism for historically illiterate keyboard warriors to get incensed about.

Hill explores these themes, noting that Wilder gives us opportunities to have discussions about the problems in American history. She decries the current trend to only writing historical fiction about characters we can put 21st century beliefs into, noting that seeing the Ingalls as part of this movement that stole land from Native Americans can help us have the discussions about these events, and the mindset behind it, rather than gloss it over. Have the conversations, she urges. It's not children that are uncomfortable with it--it's adults.

That being said, Hill does dig into the context surrounding Wilder's controversies. For instance, the original manuscript of Little House on the Prairie referred to the West as a place "Where no people lived, just the Indians." But when a reprint came around, the editor at her publisher objected to the wording and Wilder herself agreed: "It was poorly phrased. I did not mean to imply that Indians are not people." She urged him to make the change. And while the horrific phrase "The Only good Indian is a dead Indian" DOES occur twice in the Little House books, it is never a member of the Ingalls family who says it. In both cases, the people who say it are folks who are portrayed as NOT particularly nice people, and Pa in one case at least openly disagrees with them. Ma DOES say she doesn't like Indians, and Laura responds, "Why did we come to their country if you don't like them?" However, this is a far cry from what has been represented. Pa DOES occasionally engage in platitudes about the Native Americans having to give way to progress for farmers and Laura on occasion challenges that and there is no real answer Pa can give her. Seen through this lens, the Little House books certainly belong in the category of more paternalistic books that sometimes gloss over the fact that these homesteaders were stealing the land, Wilder actually digs into the uncomfortable side of that more often than not, having her character query her father, or recognizing the Indians as symbols of a West that was being lost. It also simply rings true as a decent example of how otherwise decent white pioneers felt about themselves AND about the Indigenous people and gives us an opportunity to critique. Hill argues simply that there is too much good in the books to refuse to acknowledge them and that we use the parts that are uncomfortable to talk about the racism that's been present in the US right from the beginning. Our young readers will be VERY familiar with expressions of racism and not allowing them to read things because it might make them uncomfortable is certainly not a service. As a teacher, I wholeheartedly agree.

There are other great points to be made. Hill puts to rest rather forcibly the notion that Wilder simply plagiarized her own daughter, by showing that actually it was the other way around most of the time. And she highlights important themes in the Little House series and shows how Wilder matured as an author throughout. This is an excellent discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of American historical fiction (and yes, the Little House books are historical FICTION, not autobiography) and a strong case to be made for using historical fiction to teach. As a history teacher, who loves historical fiction, I 100% agree!

[Sharon Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a lot of Laura Ingalls Wilder books, and I was happy to see that there was material in this one that was new to me.

Ostensibly it's about the pushback that some of Wilder's books have received about cultural insensitivity, and it addresses those issues well. (To be fair, I was already on that side.) However, there's also a bunch of material I hadn't seen before about the writing of the books, particularly about how The First Four Years came to be and why it seems different from the other books.

So even if you've read all the books about Wilder, this is worth reading.

[Barbara Boustead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to come, but in short, an excellent read, especially for those who have some background knowledge about Laura Ingalls Wilder's (real) life.

[Frrobins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the defense of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her legacy that is needed and deserved. From people attacking her as the rightful author of the Little House books to charges of racism and Wilder being stripped of awards, this is the long overdue defense and re-examination that the Little House series warranted.

I had read William Holtz's biography on Rose Wilder Lane which challenges Laura's authorship of the Little House books and claimed that Rose was the true genius behind the books and that Laura stole from Rose. I found Holtz's biography rather unsatisfying for a number of reasons, and one was because he did not back his arguments well with good examples and it felt like a lot of mudslinging against Laura. Worse, despite Holtz being rather enamored of Rose, his biography of her made her seem rather unlikeable and the devotion that people who knew Rose Wilder Lane in life had for her was rather confusing as a result.

After reading Hill's book, which actually utilized examples, I can honestly say that Hill makes a much stronger case for Laura being the genius behind the books and Rose being a skilled editor. Further, Hill makes a compelling case that it was actually Rose who stole from Laura's "Pioneer Girl" manuscript to write her novels. And while there is nothing on the historical record of Rose feeling as though Laura stole her work, it is recorded that Laura felt Rose had stolen hers and this created some conflict between the two for awhile. Which basically means that both in Hill's book and in Holtz's sympathetic biography of Rose, Rose comes off rather badly. The mere fact that a biographer sympathetic to Rose couldn't salvage her reputation and couldn't successfully manipulate her legacy is rather telling.

One good move on Hill's part was including a passage from Laura's "Pioneer Girl" manuscript and one from Rose's novels that she plagiarized from or was inspired by "Pioneer Girl". Laura's superior writing ability shines through no question. Rose herself even admitted that no one could top Laura's descriptions of the natural world.

More than that, I appreciated how Hill shone the spotlight on the realism of the Little House novels and how Laura developed the characters. Despite the reputation the books have of being wholesome, Laura doesn't sugarcoat the hardships of life. And Laura had to fight to do so. She had to fight to include her older sister going blind and, unlike other novels of the time where disabled family members became sheltered, virtuous invalids, Mary remained human, and Laura described how the family saved and sacrificed to give Mary and education so she could have a measure of independence and make her own income. Laura also had to fight to include a scene where a woman draws a butcher's knife on her husband as Laura watches behind a thin sheet. Laura also doesn't sugarcoat how the family could have drowned while fording a river or other such dangers of frontier life. While this may not seem incredible to a modern audience, at the time Laura was writing such realism was novel.

Another thing Laura does not sugarcoat, and which has gotten her into trouble with modern audiences, is the racist attitudes people held then. I will admit, as I hadn't read the series since I was a child, when I recently read the books to my daughter I was pleasantly surprised when I read "Little House on the Prairie" and found quite a bit of nuance. As Hill points out, when someone says something racist against the American Indians, Charles Ingalls challenges the racist sentiment successfully and in the end Laura decides she agrees with her father. The book also doesn't sweep the fact that the pioneers are taking land from the American Indians under the rug. Laura challenges it head on and the guilt pervades the novel. Further, Hill took the time to count how often the Ingalls family is rescued and made the good observation that they are rarely rescued and when they are, most of the time it is by a person of color. One would be Doctor Tann, a Black doctor who saved the family when they were deathly ill with malaria. Another would be Big Jerry, who is half American Indian, and he saves the family from a horse thief and later draws a murderous mob away from Charles.

Let me say, I felt good about reading the books to my kids. Yes, there were some parts that were uncomfortable, and they lead to conversations that needed to happen because, as Hill points out, racism still exists today. People who look at the series through modern eyes and expect modern purity are doing more harm than they can even begin to realize by trying to erase history.

Laura was too pragmatic to be a Utopian. She also didn't insult her audience. And this is why I suspect that her works have endured for nearly one hundred years while others, including Rose's works, have faded into obscurity.

This is a much needed re-evaluation and course correction. Highly recommended for fans of the series or people who just want to learn more about the books.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book lays out the importance of the Little House books in the history and development of children's and young adult literature. There are sections for each book, with analyses that include letters and other primary source documents. I have expertise in children's literature, and I still learned some things about these particular books and about the author. There is a wealth of information in the text.

The author makes a case for keeping the Little House books. Although I disagree with some of the conclusions she's drawn, the book is very well-written and engaging. The author clearly supports her conclusions.

The importance of the Little House books in the history of children's and young adult literature in the United States is undeniable. This author clearly illustrates this in her book.

This would be a great text for a history of children's and/or young adult literature course. Of course, I'd want the students to read one of the Little House books, and I'd pair it with a book like The Birchbark House or Prairie Lotus or another historical fiction book about the same time period that isn't racist.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the Washington Post review several months ago and knew I’d want to read it eventually. Luckily my sister gave it to me at Christmas (& as is our tradition, read it first!). The title comes from a 1937 speech from Laura Ingalls Wilder who said that these stories from her childhood were too good to be altogether lost. As a retired elementary school librarian who would spend a week around LIW’s February birthday sharing stories from the Little House books to all my elementary grades (as well as some of her Christmas stories in the week before Winter break), I was already realizing that these books were not as popular as they once were. As the Little House books have been dismissed as too racist and inappropriate I welcomed reading this analysis and discussion of these books. As with all books, they are enhanced with discussions about problematic parts, not dismissing the concerns but also not dismissing the books because they have scenes that don’t fit in with today’s mores. This was an excellent book.

[Adele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pamela Smith Hill is my favorite Laura Ingalls Wilder scholarly writer. I like her style, find her very readable, and of course I like that she is such a Wilder fan. It doesn't hurt that she is pretty overtly anti-Rose as well. This book focuses on some of the more recent backlash and controversy about racism. I believe Hill provides a good redemption/defense, but I was not hard to convince. My favorite chapter was the last one going into great detail to answer the question, "What's up with The First Four Years?"

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Mary Mosley · Rating 4 out of 5]

She makes you appreciate Laura Ingalls Wilder even more. Apparently her daughter did some editing and helped her negotiate the publishing world, but she didn't write them. The daughter is all but forgotten; her mom is much more widely read. Wilder has been done a disservice by the she children's book award being renamed. This book lays to rest the idea that she was a racist. Remember, she didn't write in the 2000s.

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, just when I’d thought I’d read everything possible about Laura Ingalls Wilder, I was proven wrong. It seems there’s always a way to shed new light on her life.

Most people have either read Wilder’s famous Little House books or, at the very least, have heard of them. They are fiction, but somewhat strongly based on her own childhood and teen years as she grew up in the West from roughly 1870 to the late 1880’s. They quickly became classics, but in the past couple of decades have suffered from controversary, most particularly in her depiction of Indigenous Peoples, to the point that the American Library Association stripped Wilder’s name from the award they give out annually to authors/illustrators for lifetime achievements. They stated that Wilder’s portrayals of Indigenous and Black peoples do not align with modern values of inclusivity. More on this in a moment.

First off, what makes this book different from the others? Right off the bat, I loved the format. The subtitle is “Rediscovering Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House Books”, and that’s bang on. Pamela Smith Hill gives every Little House book its own chapter (or two) and explores it in-depth, analyzing everything from character development, prose, how much is factual, and to what extent Wilder’s daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, helped her mother write them. The result is a scholarly, yet very readable, approach to the books which I really enjoyed. Sometimes with scholarly books I end up skimming the “dry” bits, but there was nothing to skim here. It was all meat, but presented in a very non-scholarly fashion. I would definitely consider re-reading the Little House books again (for perhaps the 20th time?) one by one and alternate between each Wilder book and Hill’s analysis for it. My future Little House project!

Hill also explores how the books changed the reading experience for children and teens and changed the publishing industry. By the Shores of Silver Lake is literally the first novel ever written specifically with teens in mind. In effect, Wilder created the Young Adult genre. Her exploration of dark themes (Mary’s blindness and the butcher knife scene, to name only two) was a first for children’s/teen novels. She refused to back down when it was suggested that those elements/themes be removed. A gutsy move that ultimately changed the course of young adult literature forever.

However, the big question is: was Wilder a racist and do her books deserve to be shunned (and sometimes banned) because of their racist content? Hill is obviously a Wilder supporter, but she handles this topic very fairly and presents her arguments well. To sum up, Wilder based her fictional stories on true life events that she witnessed as a young person in the 1870’s-1880’s West. Hill doesn’t shy away from the fact that yes, there are portrayals and comments within the stories that we now know are completely inappropriate. However, this was how people acted/spoke during that time, in that place, and to pretend otherwise would take away a part of history that should be discussed and remembered, if for no other reason than we not forget it happened. (Do we even have to mention the erasure of Black history that’s happening right now in the States?) Yes, there were inappropriate comments made about Indigenous Peoples, but when you look closely, Wilder’s family members were not the ones making the comments and generally defended the Indigenous People. Young Wilder herself questioned her parents as to why they were taking away their lands, and readers definitely sense that she feels it isn’t right. Many of the racist claims are directed at the scene where the elderly Indigenous man warns the town that a hard winter is coming, and the fact that he talks in pidgin English. Well, that scene takes place in 1880. It is highly unlikely that an elderly Indigenous person would be speaking fluent English in that time and place; to write that scene with him saying something like, “Hello gentlemen! My people predict that there will be a difficult winter coming up because these blizzards run on a 21-year cycle.” would not only sound ridiculous, but would sound totally inauthentic. And if there’s one thing Wilder did well in her books, she made the dialogue very believable and true to the characters’ time and place.

Anyway, I’m getting into this more than I’d meant to. Suffice to say, Hill tackles the racism attacks well and fairly.

Next on all our minds is: how much did Rose Wilder Lane take over when Laura was writing the books? This has been an ongoing debate for decades and again, Hill makes her arguments well. There’s no denying Wilder and Lane had an almost dysfunctional, symbiotic relationship, but I tend to agree with Hill that although Lane had a strong hand in the editing process, it is Wilder’s words that we ultimately get when we read the books. For heaven’s sake, Lane actually plagiarized some of her mother’s autobiographical writing, but when you compare the two, Lane’s excerpts consistently lack that emotional depth or spark that Wilder’s writing had.

All this made for great reading, but I think my favourite part of the book was the last bit, which covered Wilder’s The First Four Years. Admit it: there isn’t a reader alive, adult or child, who read that book and wasn’t totally shell shocked by the end. I remember reading it as a twelve-year old and thinking “what on earth was THAT??” It is so obviously out of step with the rest of the series; it never, ever should have been added on as a 9th book, for various reasons. Hill does a deep dive and after much research, has come up with the most believable explanation for that fiasco that I’ve read.

The last two books I read on the topic of LIW were Prairie Fires: The American Dream of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography (also written by Hill). In my opinion, Too Good to Be Altogether Lost is the perfect book for completing the trifecta of learning materials on the life of Wilder. Reading these three books will give readers just about all the biographical information they need, as well as taking an in-depth look at how her books have impacted readers’ lives and provided a unique look at a short period of history. Fans of Wilder will thoroughly enjoy this latest addition to the batch. A must-read!

[Diane M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gave me more insight into the woman and series that I loved so much as a child. I always felt a connection to Laura as a child because we moved so much and her books grounded me and made me feel so safe and brave.

“Cancelling” these books would be such a disservice to our children when there is so much to learn from history and the period. The best way to teach our children is history and what we can learn from it, right or wrong. This is a great dissertation on why it is so important to keep these books on our reading list and shelves.

Also, Rose Wilder Lane has really let me down, more than I thought on “Prairie Girl” from 2014.

[Steven Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a great read. Biography, history, literary analysis of every book in the series, great insights about the art of writing and history of publishing kids and young adult books, and a bit polemical and gossipy about the cancellation of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Reader’s voice on audiobook was excellent.

[Jeanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this! I didn't know Laura's writings were so ground-breaking for their time. They're not all about sweet things, and she helped create Young Adult literature. In 2019 the American Library Association stripped Laura’s name from the medal created in her honor. Should we ban books that are racially disturbing? They implicate and discomfort adults, not children. To the so-called enlightened, the unenlightened past is irrelevant or offensive. “Today’s younger readers now have an orientation to the present, and seem to lose their bearings in the past.” Younger readers are more likely to seek out and identity problematic ideas in classic texts, than delve into historical or cultural contexts that produced them.

Also, it was great to see this author showing the brilliance of Laura's writings, and how her daughter's influence actually could have stunted some of that brilliance. She showed so plausibly that Rose Lane influenced "The First Four Years," which is why Little House readers hate it!

“If you write for children, then I am in my second childhood.” Laura's, literary agent, George By

In an episode of the Wilder podcast, a very young reader criticized Wilder because she didn’t use the term Native American in the Little House books. The mother praised this child. Ignorantly, the mother didn’t realize the term wasn’t even coined until the 1960s, after the books were written.

" 'What did we come to their country for if you don’t like them?' " Laura asked us of her mother, who reveals not only her fear but her dislike of native Americans, showing that Laura confronted the dilemmas of the day. She doesn’t only write of sweet and happy things, but of the problems of her era.

By the Shores of Silver Lake was groundbreaking for its time and helped establish a new genre of literature—young adult fiction. Laura has to assume grown up duties now that Mary is blind, etc.
Little Women was published in 1868 and is considered the first American young adult novel, but after years pass, Laura really starts a new genre.

[Mary Book · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book brought me back to my youth; I just loved the “Little House” stories and this book was an illuminating and fascinating explanation of how Laura Ingalls Wilder created these gems. The author addresses recent controversies about Wilder’s writing and how these books have fallen out of favor since some of the scenes appear to today’s audience as racist. I accept the author’s explanations and conclusions and agree that Wilder’s writing contains themes that are still applicable today - courage, resilience, grit, independent thinking, devotion to family and women’s valuable role in society.

I found it equally fascinating to read the author’s dissection of the writing and editing process that Wilder employed. Her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, served as Wilder’s editor and the story of their collaboration is interesting.

The author also describes the tension between mother and daughter during this process, as she convincingly explains that Lane plagiarized a good deal of Wilder’s original autobiography to create her own novels. This is a controversy that has dogged the Little House books from the start - that Lane actually wrote the novels - and the author shows that this is a false conclusion.

I have a copy of “Pioneer Girl” annotated by Pamela Smith Hill, but I still haven’t read it. I’m glad I read “Too Good to be Altogether Lost” first. It has given me much more insight into Wilder’s creative process and I think I will appreciate and understand “Pioneer Girl” so much better.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves the “Little House” books, and who wants to make sure that they continue to be read and enjoyed.

[Nicole Palumbo Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pamela Smith Hill focuses on the actual craft in Wilder's writing, the process and the product, which I found pretty interesting. She also tries to address the problems with reading Wilder today - you can't present these books to today's kids without context, but they do present an opportunity for discussion. I adored these books as a child, but I never saw them as Manifest Destiny propaganda. The character Laura sometimes questions what right the Ingalls family have to be on Indian land. There are characters with objectionable opinions, but said opinions are proof that the characters are objectionable. I am not Native American, so it is not my place to decide if Wilder is racist (though by today's standards, probably yes), but I do think we lose something if we can't read and question books from the past. (That being said, I had read Little Town on the Prairie more than once before it dawned on me that Wilder was describing characters in blackface - I guess I didn't really understand what a minstrel show was and Laura thought it was delightful, so I didn't question it, and yes, I know there was an illustration of this scene, but I was kind of dense).

So, back to this actual book - I've always rejected the idea that Rose Wilder Lane wrote the Little House books because I've read some of her writing and I find it lifeless. Hill delves into the way Wilder shaped her stories and the work she put into the writing and revising. Yes, Lane helped - I blame her for some of the clunky libertarian stuff.

[Katharine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too Good.... ended up not being what I expected, even though I read the summary description (clearly not well enough). I thought I would be reading a detailed evaluation of the historical realism and current relevance of Wilder's Little House series. Instead, Too Good... read like a college course on the series, discussing plot, character relationships, etc. in comparison/contrast to Wilder's original unpublished autobiography titled Pioneer Girl, rather than to events going on in this country at the time the story takes place. I would have probably gotten more out of Too Good... if I had had time to reread each Little House book before its chapter discussion (kinda like homework). But, I am still disappointed there was only a little about contemporaneous events.

There was also a good bit of discussion related to the Team Laura vs Team Rose debate that didn't do much more than scratch the surface until the last chapter on the posthumously published First Four Years ("FFY"). I admit that chapter was my favorite of the book because it was a deep dive and almost line-by-line comparison of FFY and Rose's novel Let the Hurricane Roar, which I found fascinating.

So, it was good. But, I hadn't really picked it up to learn about the development of Pa's relationship to Laura over 14+ years and whether the Little Town on the Prairie stories took place in the same order as Laura's real-life stories.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book that is much more than an argument for not "cancelling" the Little House books (although it is that). For those of us who love and have read the Little House books, this is like rereading them with an expert professor who points out all the great literary merits and Wilder's skills in writing them. Hill also shows how Wilder's fictional and real selves differ, what her life was like after her marriage to Almanzo Wilder, and tracks the interactions between Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, who plagiarized Wilder's work to create her own, lesser works, before Wilder started writing the Little House series, and then became Wilder's first reader and editor. (Mother-daughter relationships are complicated.) If you've ever wondered why The First Four Years, published after Wilder died, seems an unsatisfactory conclusion to the series--this book will explain that.

[Janilyn Kocher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I come from a long line of farmers. What kept reverberating throughout my mind as I read was it’s illustrative of a field being plowed over and over while producing the same crop; nothing new is yielded.
This book is a good dissection of the books for many people not familiar with the series or who are wanting to delve more into their background than the wide array of books already written about both Lane and Wilder.
I don’t feel it’s necessary to parse and slice every little nuance nor analyze details to death.
I don’t agree with many assertions Hill makes, especially with her comparison of Let the Hurricane Roar and The First Four Years.
Sometimes it’s necessary to allow a field to lie fallow for rejuvenation.
Thanks University of Nebraska Press for the advance copy.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this (as a life-long fan of the Little House series, and as a reader distressed by the modern philosophy of instantly blacklisting anyone who lived in another time when attitudes and practices were quite different from modern views--and dared to write about them). My feelings about the book are already recorded by other reviewers, so I won't repeat them here.
I learned a lot about LIW's daughter and her personal and working relationship with her. As a side note, I had no idea that RWL was so connected to libertarianism.
I didn't love nor do I agree with equating Almanzo's horses wildly pulling them around in a sleigh or a buggy or other conveyance with sexual awakening, but otherwise, I highly recommend this book.

[Janel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her Little House books. Pamela Smith Hill has published another great book about this wonderful author. Her books are carefully researched. Smith examines Wilder’s original Pioneer Girl manuscript that was meant to be a non-fiction story about her childhood. Hill compares this manuscript to Wilder's published nine novels in the Little House series.

This is a must read if you are a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan.

Thank you NetGalley and University of Nebraska Press for a chance to review this book.

[Lisa Poliski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! I read the Little House as a child and continue to reread them as an adult. Pamela Smith Hill explains the underlying genius of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her literary skill beautifully. I especially appreciated how she addressed accusations of racism by clarifying 19th century attitudes using the historical record, thereby showing how Wilder was a product of her experiences and the danger of using 21st century attitudes as judgment. Finally, her theory about The First Four Years makes a lot of sense and underscores my appreciation of the entire series.

[Chandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a niche book, an chapter by chapter exploration of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books from a very academic standpoint. This is more an argumentative overview than a narrative history of how Wilder as author came to be. Its double premise is, at root, that Wilder (and not her daughter) was the special source of genius for the series, and that her representation of native americans was both appropriate for the time and now an important cultural representation that can be learned from. Are you a Laura Ingalls Wilder scholar? This is your book.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank You to NetGalley for the free ebook.

I love history and to read about Laura Ingalls Wilder. This book hit the spot. It talks about her life, the controversy surrounding her books, and some new information uncovered while the author was researching. The author's passion and knowledge about Laura Ingalls Wilder shines through in this book. I couldn't put it down and would recommend it to other Laura Ingalls Wilder fans, those interested in history, the Midwest, pioneers, families, and westward movement.

[Angela Marotta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very satisfied with this book as I was a skeptical reader who grew up adoring all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and as an adult have read much about her life and her writing history with her daughter Rose. This was a respectful deep dive into the content and context of each of the books Laura wrote as well as the story of the relationships that she was engaged in while writing and their possible affects on the outcomes.
I was especially intrigued by the take on The First Four Years as this was something of an outlier in my mind and did not resonate with me like the other books.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This author is my favorite Wilder biographer. Laura Ingalls Wilder fans will love this book. The author also hopes to draw new readers to Laura's work. In the preface, the author writes of some of the criticism that hurt Laura's legacy. The author goes through each book and pulls so much material out. It seemed amazing at times. The reader also received a surprise about The First Four Years that put a new light on it. The author did some research and uncovered something amazing.

[Krista · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent look at the creation of the Little House book series. It addresses some of the controversies surrounding the books with clear, rational explanations based on research. I also now look at the books with a different view knowing some of the backstories of their creation. Anyone who is a fan of the novels should read this.

[``Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author endeavors to answer the complaints of the Little House books being 'racist' by the politically correct/DEI/unctuous and self-righteous crowd.
Her charming book by book analysis should hopefully stave off those wanting to censor Wilder by making her books more 'inclusive' and PC.