The First Four Years

The First Four Years: Little House, Book 9 by Laura Ingalls Wilder

This final book in the Little House series was published many years after the author died. The manuscript was found and published with minal editing. It does seem to be shorter than the other books in the series. They are living out on the prairie. It is not an easy life. Something seems to happen right about the time they are going to harvest, such as a hailstorm that destroys just about everything. They have a daughter, and later a son, but he doesn't live long. They work hard in the confines of the US regulations for land claims. There are some relationships with other people and Indians, but the biggest challenge is with mother nature. This one is shorter than other books in the series.

These Happy Golden Years

These Happy Golden Years: Little House, Book 8 by Laura Ingalls Wilder

I would always turn off the TV when Little House on the Prairie came on. The books, however, are much better. This one tells the story of the author's courtship and marriage. It starts with her accepting a short term winter teaching assignment at a school a dozen miles away. She is a teenager in school herself, barely a few years older than the pupils she is teaching. The family she is boarding with are constantly quarrelling, making the thought of spending weekends with them even more foreboding. She dreams of her dad coming to take her home for the weekend. He doesn't come, but a boy comes instead. He drives the horses through the cold and snow every weekend to bring her back. This boy would later become her wife. There are plenty of other things that happen between the two of them and among other friends and family, with the eventual culmination of their marriage. Though the customs and values are of the 19th century, the feelings and emotions are very similar to those of today.