About This Book

Laura Ingalls likes her little house in the big woods, which she shares with Ma and Pa, and her two, sisters Mary and Carrie. Winter is coming, and their log house is snug and warm. But the big woods are becoming crowded. Everyday, they hear the thud of an axe on a tree, and Pa wants to leave. In fact, he wants to move the entire family west, to Indian country. The family prepares a covered wagon and Laura leaves her home in the woods forever. The trip west is not easy, but Laura's spirited curiosity is heightened by the adventures they have along the way: The wagon is almost swept away in a river with the family inside. They must camp out under the stars. The land is new and different with nothing to see but prairie grass and a giant sky. And while the land yields everything the Ingalls family could want — plenty of game and fish and empty land on which they build a house, plant crops and make their home — it also has its dangers, including wolves and Indians, upon whose land white settlers are encroaching. In a year, the Ingalls will leave this home, too.

In the middle of it all, lucidly written, detailed descriptions of the family establishing their prairie house are mesmerizing. Chapters chronicling the building of a chimney, a roof, and a floor, and the digging of a well provide readers with a unique glimpse into America's frontier past. This is the second volume in Laura Ingalls Wilder's classic series of Little House books. Published in 1935, it has been enthralling legions of readers for generations. Garth Williams, the illustrator of Charlotte's Web and other children's classics, provides the definitive, evocative illustrations.