A Little House Picture Book Treasury: Six Stories of Life on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

A beautifully illustrated collection of stories adapted from the beloved Little House books.

Reading Level: Ages 3-8.

Length: 208 pages. Each story averages about 30 pages.

Read aloud time: About 3-5 minutes per story.

About the Author: Laura Ingalls Wilder was an American author, known for the Little House series, published between 1932 and 1943. She was born in Wisconsin in 1867 and spent her childhood traveling West with her parents and sisters, living briefly in Kansas and Minnesota before settling in De Smet, South Dakota. She married homesteader Almanzo Wilder and the couple eventually settled in Mansfield, Missouri, where Laura wrote the Little House books based on her childhood experiences.

Here’s why kids might like this book:
This beautifully illustrated treasury contains six wonderful stories adapted from Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prairie, and Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. You will read about Laura’s family building a house on the wild Kansas prairie, Laura and Mary’s first trip to a town, Almanzo Wilder’s day at the county fair in New York state where his pumpkin wins a prize, how Pa and Grandpa make maple sugar after the sugar snow, how Laura and Mary find simple ways to have fun during the winter days in Wisconsin, and how they celebrate Christmas with their cousins. Each story is told in short, simple sentences, accompanied by large, detailed illustrations that will capture and hold your child’s attention.

What makes this book worth reading?
These stories serve as a wonderful entry into the Little House series for younger children. Older children who are already familiar with the original books will love seeing their favorite episodes so beautifully depicted. I love that this collection has a variety of stories from the different books, even including one from Farmer Boy. Like the beloved Little House books, this collection contains endearing, peaceful, beautiful tales of the daily adventures of frontier life that your child will love reading again and again. The stories are also edited for a younger audience, excluding any incidents of conflict or trauma that appear in these sections of the original novels. For example, the story A Little Prairie House excludes the episode from Little House on the Prairie where the log falls on Ma’s ankle, badly injuring her.

If you enjoyed the stories in this treasury, look for the other books in the Little House Picture book series. If you’re interested in Laura, I especially like Dance at Grandpa’s, Summertime in the Big Woods, A Little House Birthday, and Prairie Day. For books on Almanzo, try A Farmer Boy Birthday and Winter on the Farm.

Publication Details: New York: HarperCollins, 2017.