RAR #219: Yes, You Should Read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s The Long Winter

Read-Aloud Revival ®

The Long Winter is the sixth book in the Little House on the Prairie series. It was first published in 1940, and is an autobiographical novel. Laura Ingalls Wilder based the series on her actual life as a child, settling the west. This particular story, The Long Winter, was set in the southwestern Dakota Territory during the severe winter of 1880-1881 when Laura was 14 years old.

Even if you haven’t read the rest of the Little House books, I think you want to read this one. You can read any of the Little House books as stand-alones, but I’m betting that if you give your kids a taste of any of them, they’ll want to keep reading more stories from Laura.

And truly, it’s no wonder why. Laura Ingalls Wilder is, to my mind, unparalleled as one of the finest novelists in children’s literature, ever alive.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• How Ingalls Wilder creates an immersive experience with deceptively simple writing
• Why re-reading can be the best kind of reading, for us and for our kids
• How to handle troubling or problematic content in books with your kids, and why I believe we need to have those discussions

But there is an elephant in the room with the Little House on the Prairie books and we need to talk about it.

Today, we’re talking about what makes The Long Winter so gripping and so beloved, as well as how we handle problematic texts with our kids and why I believe that scenes and language we may find troubling aren’t reasons to leave great books on the shelf.

Find the rest of the show notes at: https://readaloudrevival.com/219/