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Book Review of Little House on the Prairie

Little House on the Prairie
cyndij avatar reviewed on + 1032 more book reviews


Somehow I never read these as a child, nor did I ever see the TV show. Now I volunteer at a little museum dedicated to Arizona's pioneer history, and it seems every child who comes in is reading (or watching) Little House on the Prairie. Time to find out what they know. This one, I gather, is the most famous? Have to say that as an adult I have mixed feelings about it. I was interested in finding out the depiction of Native Americans, because I've heard some controversy over that. It wasn't as bad as I expected, Pa and Ma at least are not homicidal, although Ingalls doesn't depict the Indians as anything good. There is just a tiny seed of doubt, from Laura, that the Indians might not appreciate settlers taking everything that used to be theirs. But we know what happened and it cannot be changed, as a reflection of the times (not just the time frame of the book but the time the novel was written) it's a good story although I think parents should discuss the attitudes and the entitlement. As a lesson in self-reliance and just the over-all toughness of those pioneers it is excellent.