Life is finally becoming a bit easier for the Ingalls family. There are no major hardships for them to face; the farm is coming along nicely and Mary is finally able to go away to college. Laura is growing up and thanks to the town environment she’s making friends at school. This is a blessing because Nellie Oleson has reappeared and is every bit as charming as before. The time when Laura will be able to teach is getting closer and she must work hard, but she becomes distracted by the social whirl of life in town.
As Laura is a teenager throughout this book (ranging from 14 at the start to nearly 16 at the finish) it will begin to appeal to a tween audience. There’s not so much boy/girl interaction that it will really distract or disinterest younger readers either. They’ll probably ignore the quiet flirtations and innocent walks home.
Okay, now that I’ve gotten the basic book review part out of the way, I’m going to overanalyze Laura and Almanzo’s relationship, which is something I spent way too much time thinking about once I was an adult. I think I was just completely blown away by how incredibly different my perspective was as a grown-up. As a child, and yes, probably a teen, rereading the books I certainly knew he was much older. I read a lot of historical fiction, so the age difference was something I accepted and then didn’t particularly think about, much as I learned to accept cousins marrying each other. But when I reread this series as an adult I really thought about it all differently.
At 14, Laura falls deeply in love with Almanzo Wilder’s horses. Definitely a point in his favor even though he probably doesn’t know it. Their first real encounter is when he offers to drive her to school and she accepts. When she introduces herself it’s clear he knows who she is. She’s still only fourteen, and it is just a ride, but I can’t help thinking that he knows exactly what he’s doing. You’ve got to figure in a town like this, there are a limited number of potential wives to choose from. They don’t even mention any girls older than Laura. Anyway, by the time she’s fifteen, he starts seeing her home from town events. And Laura is in the deep deep oblivion of a teenager. It’s actually kind of funny because he must be so completely deliberate and purposeful in his courting and she’s just sort of confused and hoping she’ll see more of his horses.
Adoption Laura’s friend Ida is adopted. At one point she asks Laura “Mother Brown took me out of a Home, but she must have liked me to do that, don’t you think so?” She also says that she is “only an adopted child.” It’s not clear where these insecurities are coming from (her family or outsiders) but depending on your audience you might want to address this.
Racism A politician makes a speech about the Revolutionary War. In it he refers to “murdering, scalping red-skinned savages” and reiterates that they were murdering, burning and scalping women and children. It is again pointed out that “Ma hated Indians.” There is a performance by a group in blackface that chants about “darkies”. Pa is one of the men who performed in blackface.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – They make Mary underwear and petticoats for school. Laura and Mary must wear corsets. There’s talk of Nellie “setting her cap” for Almanzo Wilder, even though he’s “a grown man.” Cap Garland tries to give a girl candy, but another girl keeps intercepting it. Nellie claims she can twist a boy around her finger. Laura starts to hope that she will meet someone so that she won’t have to be a schoolteacher forever. A teacher whips a boy.
Profanity – Mr. Clancy swore at something Mrs. Clancy said. In a church sermon, the Reverend that there is time to be saved from damnation, “drat,” “I’ll be jiggered,”
Death, Violence and Gore – Laura confesses that sometimes she wanted to slap Mary. A mouse was chewing off Pa’s hair while he slept and he hurled it against a wall and in the morning they found the dead mouse body. The new kitten fights and kills a mouse. There are some gunpowder explosions to celebrate the fourth of July. Carrie and Laura pretend firecrackers are guns. Pa shoots a lot of blackbirds. Again they mention the children who were lost on the prairie and died. Nellie Oleson raises her hand to slap Laura but lowers it. The boys discuss leaving a bent pin on Miss Wilder’s chair. Kitty will attack people and dogs who get to close. There’s a brief reference to “John Brown…who had killed so many men in Kansas.” Two men freeze to death in a blizzard. Their bodies are found by a haystack.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – Two drunks stumble around town. Pa makes a doll cradle from a cigar box. Almanzo smells of cigar smoke.
Frightening or Intense Things – None.
