Laura Ingalls WilderLaura Ingalls Wilder: The Little House Books Vol. 2 (LOA #230): By the Shores of Silver Lake / The Long Winter / Little Town on the Prairie / These ... of America Laura Ingalls Wilder Edition)

Laura Ingalls Wilder's books are pretty well-known, but here's a summary of the ones included in this volume:By the Shores of Silver Lake - Picking up from On The Banks of Plum Creek, the family moves to a railroad camp in Dakota Territory and plays a part in the founding of the town of De SmetThe Long Winter - Covers life in De Smet during a particularly bad winter in 1880-81Little Town on the Prairie - Starts immediately after The Long Winter. De Smet has become established, with a school, church, a range of shops. Laura starts her first job, sewing shirts, and finishes the book becoming qualified as a school teacherThese Happy Golden Years - Laura teaches school, gets more involved with social events in De Smet, and the book ends just as she gets married to Almanzo WilderThe First Four Years - Has some details of events at the end of These Happy Golden Years, but mostly covers their attempts to become farmers in the first few years of their marriage. Slightly more adult in tone than the other books, and not quite as polished.I read these books as a child, but coming back to them as an adult it surprised me just how political they are in places. Laura's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, was heavily involved in the American Libertarianism movement (as well as editing these books) and there's a lot of libertarian thinking at events like De Smet's Independence Days and when Laura is thinking about adulthood.As for this particular collection, it includes the 5 books listed above, a couple of letters from Laura, a chronology of events (Laura's life didn't follow what happened in these books exactly, and some of the less pleasant events were not mentioned at all), notes on how the series was written, and a set of footnotes giving more details of events in the books and some of the songs. It does *not* include any illustrations and it uses a smaller typeface than the children's versions. Presenting them this way makes them feel more grown up than the original versions so it might mean they'd be more suitable for an older audience. One stylistic quirk to watch out for is spelling "goodbye" as "Good-by". Not a major issue but one to be aware of.

I enjoyed this omnibus so much. I know that these books are promoted as being for children, but I would say that while they are books written from a young person(Laura)'s perspective, they are appealing to an adult simply because they are such an interesting account of what life was like for pioneering families in the late 1880s. and as such, probably hold less appeal for the average child. As always, in terms of attitude, resourcefulness, stoicism and sheer grit, we could learn a great deal from the Ingalls family. I have managed to find some more books written about Laura's years with her husband - which follow on from this omnibus, so I am still enjoying Laura's life.

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