Little House on the Prairie

Western by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Blurb

Little House on the Prairie is a children's novel by Laura Ingalls Wilder, published in 1935. This book is the third of the series of books known as the Little House series.
The book is about the months the Ingalls family spent on the Kansas prairie around the town of Independence. Wilder describes how her father built their one-room log house in Indian Territory, having heard that the government planned to open the territory to white settlers soon.
Here, unlike in the original Little House in the Big Woods, the family meets difficulty and danger. They all fall ill from malaria, which was ascribed to breathing the night air or eating watermelon. American Indians are a common sight for the little family, as their house was built in Osage territory, and Ma's open prejudice about Indians contrasts with Laura's more childlike observations about the Indians who live and ride nearby. The Indians begin to congregate at the nearby river bottoms and their war cries unnerve the settlers, who worry they may be attacked, but an Osage chief who was friendly with Pa is ultimately able to avert the hostilities.

First Published

1935

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