A diary kept (and unintended for publication) by Laura Ingalls Wilder, On the Way Home details the covered wagon trip her, Almonzo, young daughter Rose and some fellow adventurers took from De Smet, South Dakota (where their luck had long ago ran out) to Mansfield, Missouri, where they would live for the rest of their lives.
Containing observations on the towns they traveled through, the people they met, the worthiness (or unworthiness) of the countryside, Wilder's short notes will be of interest to those who have read the nine "canon" Wilder books and want to know what Laura and Almonzo did next. What really makes it a worthwhile read is the context Rose gives the diary. The text is accompanied by photographs of the family and contemporary pictures of the towns they traveled through, along with a map of their travels, easily referenced with the text. An afterward by Rose really brings the book to life and we realize while reading it that the "voice" of Laura in this book series has been, at least partly, the voice of Rose all along. It's like seeing a curtain drawn revealing the machinery inside. Rose's memories of the homecoming are vivid, full of emotion and suspense. Especially effective is Rose's explanation of a photograph (included in the book) taken of her at the age of two years and four months. Rose remembers the annoying occasion with clarity and sharp wit.
I will be interested to learn, in biographies of Laura and Rose, to what extent Rose shaped the sound and structure of Laura's writing. I'm guessing it was substantial - a fact that, however interesting, does nothing to dispel the quality and the magic of the books.
Little Town on the Prairie, while continuing Laura Ingalls Wilder's always interesting and entertaining autobiographical story, excels at portraying a community coming to life. The few businesses in the town of De Smet, South Dakota described in the last book in the series have now become a full-blown town, with homesteading settlers coming from far and wide. A church is built, community societies are created and the school is getting too small for its students. Western culture is forged in the isolated town, a sign that its residents are prosperous enough to have free time for pleasure. (A minstrel show Pa Ingalls takes part in is cringe-worthy, to be sure, but it's faithful to what transpired.) It's also interesting to see teenagers from the 19th century so conscious of fashions, new technologies and jealousy-inducing trends.
Laura, meanwhile, is approaching adulthood, striving for a teaching certificate so as to earn money to keep her blind sister, Mary, in college. Laura's younger sisters, Carrie and Grace, also begin to come into their own, and her future husband, Almanzo Wilder, is already attempting to court her (though she doesn't seem to realize it).
This isn't the most dramatic book of the series, but a fine addition to it.
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.
