Little House on the Prairie

Another winner in an outstanding series...

Cherry Jones is perfect! The book is classic. The story is engaging. The characters are men and women of courage and great heart.

14 of 16 people found this review helpful

WHEN MOM SPOKE LIKE THAT,

THEY DID AS THEY WERE TOLD
This is a great wonderful book. I loved every single minute of it. It is heart warming, entertaining and instructional. Things get too crowed in Wisconsin, since almost once a day the Ingalls see a wagon going down the road close to their house. We follow the family as they travel to Kansas over frozen lakes, through woods and over the prairies. We meet wolves, panthers and Indians.

KNEE DEEP, KNEE DEEP
I am partial to heart warming books that show love between the parents and the kids. Several times I teared up in joy. I admit that I am a little more sensitive then some others on this subject, but no matter how hard you are, this will have you feeling good.

Cherry Jones
This narrator is one of the best in the business.

THERE IS NO GREAT LOSS, WITH OUT SOME SMALL GAIN
To Sacramento and Austin, if you read this far. I know what you are doing and how you are doing it. I have the same power in spades, so how about you don't use that negative power on me and I won't use mine on you.

87 of 106 people found this review helpful

Narrator can't sing

She has a dreadful singing voice and she kept singing the songs out of tune.

12 of 16 people found this review helpful

The Wildness Of Pure Heart

The Big Woods have gotten too settled for Pa and the Ingalls family, so it's off to Indian Territory. There a Little House is built, one that becomes home, complete with glass windows.
This wonderful book is really enlivened by the writing: a thousand dickey birds, singing the family to sleep with a thousand songs; stars so close they sing little Laura to sleep as well (but not before exciting her imagination!); the waking nightmare of an Indian War Cry.
There is love of family here, and of neighbors (the introduction of the stalwart Mr. Edwards); there is the excitement of being in a land that is an endless sea of grass; there are wildfires, gusty winters, Santa Claus, and Indian Jamborees that may turn deadly.
As always, Cherry Jones narrates with heart and energy, and she sings the family's tunes with gusto.
A great addition to the series!

13 of 19 people found this review helpful

wonderful experience and felt a part of journey.

wonderful experience and felt a part of journey. As the writer ran through every detail of every place and work, the narrator also equally spoke and sang along. Highs and Lows, happy and sad... Felt I was actually seeing them

Great for kids and adults

Another wonderful installment in this series. I completely understand why this became a classic. It’s so fascinating to see things from the Ingall family’s perspective as they travel out west and try to settle on the prairie. I haven’t often read books in this type of setting, so it’s a great change of pace, and I feel I’m learning so much about what life was like back then. Those were some really tough people to be able to go out and do the things they did without the help and conveniences of modern technology.

This book was a little more exciting than the first one because the family actually faces some significant dangers that threaten their lives. But, just like before, there were also plenty of sweet moments that made me smile. I actually don’t remember any particularly funny moments, though, which was something the first book had several instances of. Still, I really loved this book and I’m glad to finally be reading and enjoying this classic series.

Content Advisory:

Prejudice: Pa treats the Indians he meets with a great deal of respect as fellow human beings and leads his family to behave respectfully as well (though Ma is very much afraid of the Indians, especially when they come in the house, demand to be fed, and occasionally take things they want without asking). However, they have a neighbor who believes “The only good Indian is a dead Indian,” and says this out loud several times.

Violence: The Ingalls Family (including the dog, Jack) is in peril several times due to crossing a deep river, wild fire, wolves, other humans, and malaria (Nothing icky described. The disease gives everyone a bad fever and makes them too weak/sleepy to function normally.).

A significant theme in the book is related to the fear of an Indian massacre happening. The violence of a massacre that is said to have happened elsewhere is not described. However, there is a point where the fear of another massacre becomes very real because the Ingalls family is able to hear in the distance a gathering of the Indians in which there are many drums, and at one point, much yelling. Laura in particular becomes very afraid, screams and cannot sleep. (Everything ends up okay in the end, though.)

There is brief description of some animals that were killed for food: A rabbit is said to have been “shot through the eye”, and a bird had it’s head “shot clean off”.

Love it!!!!!!

I love this book. I will be reading more of these books. I recommend this book.

Narrator is getting better!

We love these stories! The narrator seems to do a bit better with her reading in this book then she did in the first. The music is something we've enjoyed in both!

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Excellent

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Our family loved this one - it was a bit more intense than the prior two books in the series. Be prepared to discuss issues related to white settlers pushing Native Americans off their land with your kids. The narrator is excellent.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Deeply problematic portrayals of Native Americans

Where does Little House on the Prairie rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

The performer who narrates this series is fantastic! Just stay away from this particular title, which teaches racism against Native Americans.

If you’ve listened to books by Laura Ingalls Wilder before, how does this one compare?

We started with the first book in the series, Little House in the Big Woods, set in Wisconsin, which was fantastic. So much insight into how Americans lived long ago.This second book in the Little House series is set in Kansas, and I enjoyed it a lot less, because of the disturbing portrayals of Native Americans. None of the Native Americans are depicted in a humanized way. I lost count of all the problematic stereotypes invoked. The adjective "savage" was used to describe Native Americans at least thirty times. The predominant idea is that Indians are terrifying.There are one or two "good Indian"s who save them from being murdered, and tens of thousands who steal their things, frighten them, and want to kill them. The last several chapters are all about how the family narrowly avoids being murdered by Indians.It's not like these are subtle things that little kids won't pick up on. It's a very salient feature of the book.I tried to fix it by talking to my daughter about how Ma is prejudiced, and why that's wrong. But the outcome of the story really vindicates and justifies Ma's prejudices. Pa is the voice of tolerance, but given the story ends, his generous view of the Indians appears to have been too naive, almost at the expense of his family's lives.While the rest of the story was enjoyable, the racism dimension was extensive and troubling. I wish we had purchased a different book.We will be looking more carefully at the reviews of future books in the Little House series to more carefully choose which ones we listen to.

Have you listened to any of Cherry Jones’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

She's fantastic. It's a great performance.

2 of 5 people found this review helpful