On the Banks of Plum Creek

Quite awhile ago we read Little House in the Big Woods (about the Ingalls family moving out west) and Little House on the Prairie (about the family building their log cabin).  We loved both of them.  The third book in the series is Farmer Boy.  We started it and hated it, so we gave up on it.  Then a  few months passed and I decided to try the fourth book in the series, On the Banks of Plum Creek.

We loved this one too!  The family moves to Minnesota (I am not sure why).  They live in a "dugout," which is a cave carved into a hill.  They live within a few miles of a town, so Pa gets a job with a neighbor.  Once he starts earning money, Pa is able to build a house for the family.

The kids attend school for the first time, as well as church.  Living near a town for the first time also leads to a lot of new experiences for the girls, such as having playmates and attending parties.  The characters of Nellie Olsen and her family (well known from the television series) are introduced.

The family also experiences Christmas, grasshoppers destroying their crop, and a tornado.  There is a lot of hardships in these stories.  Sometimes I forget how pampered our modern lives are until I read books like these.