While all of the previous Little House books (other than Farmer Boy) had quite an innocent element of childhood wonder to them, it’s in this, the fifth book, that reality hits home in a pretty major and sad way. Right at the start, we find that Mary has gone blind since the end of the last book (just as she did in real life) – and there’s one other development that I won’t spoil, but which I found to be pretty heart-breaking.
What I enjoyed most about this book was it’s focus on Charles’ time working as a bookkeeper for a railroad company. Not only was the insight into the way work was structured and jobs completed back then all pretty fascinating to me, but what was most interest was reading about the very tense situations that Charles ended up getting into. It was much darker than anything that happens in the previous book and shines a light on the difficulties that someone might face as a bookkeeper – even though you might have assumed that would be a relatively safe job.
As with many of the books in this series, there’s a really beautiful description of one of the family’s Christmases. They’re all a little bit different, but what each of the books’ Christmases have in common is that they perfectly sentimental and festive. I intentionally always read these books at Christmastime because of how great these segments are, and I was not disappointed.
At the end of the book, you get to read about a happier time for the Ingalls family, which is fortunate, as it would probably have been too bleak if it hadn’t – and I appreciate that Laura Ingalls Wilder could only write about what actually happened in her life without deviating from reality too much. On a similar note, I find Caroline increasingly negative, offering comments about practically everything that rarely seems agreeable – but though it is annoying, I guess that’s just what she was like.
While for me, the first book is my favourite and none of the others have ever come close, if you liked all the first four, you’ll most likely enjoy the fifth as well. Meanwhile, it’s advantage over the third book (Little House on the Prairie) is that it doesn’t lean too closely into any uncomfortable attitudes about the indigenous peoples of America. I’m pleased that the feeling of childlike wonder isn’t lost altogether (as it is in Farmer Boy) but it’s a decidedly more sombre read. This isn’t bad, it just captures another aspect of life, but it is a noticeable change. All in all, I was still quite happy with it.
Rating: 8.1/10
