Some children's books begin in happiness and end in tragedy. By the Shores of Silver Lake, the fifth book in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House book series, is the opposite. The first chapter isn't finished before one tragedy is reported and another transpires (no spoilers here). I believe it may be here when my granddaughter (age seven) stopped reading the series.
Though not as strong as the previous volumes, Silver Lake captivates with the family moving to what will be De Smet, South Dakota. The building of a railroad through the territory and the commerce and small population which follows it result in a town quickly coming to life out of and in the wilderness. The long descriptions of the building of the railroad will surely try many readers' patience (they did mine); a rare miscalculation in the construction of this volume. The vivid evocation of the area, though, with its lake, wolves, myriad birds and many-textured terrain will remain with the reader. As Laura grows older, the novel also touches on union conflicts, the decimation of the buffalo population, drunken homesteaders, and Laura and a friends' first interest in the opposite sex. Appropriately, her future husband, Almanzo Wilder, makes a cameo appearance.
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