Laura Ingalls Wilder

by Janet Spaeth

Book by Spaeth, Janet

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History

110 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1987

About the author

In first grade, Janet Spaeth was asked to write a summary of a story about a family making maple syrup. She wrote all during class, through morning recess, lunch, and afternoon recess, and asked to stay after school. When the teacher pointed out that a summary was supposed to be shorter than the original story, Janet explained that she didn’t feel the readers knew the characters well enough, so she was expanding on what was in the first-grade reader. Thus a writer was born. She lives in the Midwest and loves to travel, but to her, the happiest word in the English language is home.

Reviews

[Maddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not to be dramatic but the Little House on the Prairie books are my roman empire like I genuinely think about Laura Ingalls Wilder every day

[Marti]

Very academic.

[JoyfulK · Rating 2 out of 5]

Spaeth reviews the Little House books as a "multi-volume novel", investigating themes such as the the way social mores and social life developed in prairie communities, Wilder's use of expressive language, and her development of herself and family members as consistent characters throughout the series.

Each chapter in this book is like a separate critical essay about the Little House books. The reviews don't tie together into a whole. In some of them, like the essay on "Family Folklore" it seems like Spaeth is really stretching to find a point to make. In others, like "The Face Under the Sunbonnet," Spaeth's essay on women's roles on the prairie, I felt like she barely scratched the surface of the topic. So many parallels and questions are raised by putting Wilder's work in this area into the context of history; there could be a whole book of historical/literary investigation on this single topic.

Overall, this book left me dissatisfied.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Janet Spaeth provides interesting analysis of Laura Ingalls Wilder's classic series intended to convey to children an understanding of the American pioneer experience.

[Cat. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Twayne U.S. Authors Series