| Little House on the Prairie | |
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Little House on the Prairie book cover, illustrated by Garth Williams (1953) |
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| Author(s) | Laura Ingalls Wilder |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Little House |
| Genre(s) | Family Saga Western |
| Publisher | Harper & Brothers, Later, Scholastic |
| Publication date | 1935 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
| Pages | [335] |
| ISBN | 0-06-440002-6 |
| OCLC Number | 224702 |
| LC Classification | PZ7.W6461 Lit 1971 |
| Preceded by | Farmer Boy |
| Followed by | On the Banks of Plum Creek |
Little House on the Prairie is a children's novel by Laura Ingalls Wilder and was published in 1935.[1] This book is the third of the series of books known as the Little House series.
The book tells about the months the Ingalls family spent on the prairie of Kansas, around the town of Independence, Kansas. Here, unlike in the original Little House, the family meets difficulty and danger. They fall ill from malaria,[2] and Laura comments on the varied ways they believe to have acquired it, with "Ma" believing it came from eating bad Watermelon. Irony also becomes a part of this book. Ma's prejudice about American Indians, and Laura's childish feelings, are shown side by side with the portrayal of the Osage tribe that lives on and owns that land. And by the end of the book, all the family's work is undone when they are forced to move from their plains home.
The Ingalls family moved to Kansas from Wisconsin in 1868 (they stopped for a while in Rothville, Missouri) and lived there between 1869 and 1870; baby Carrie was born there in August and a couple of weeks after her birth, they were forced to leave the territory. They moved back to Wisconsin where they lived the next four years. In 1874 they started for Walnut Grove, Minnesota, stopping for a while in Lake City, Minnesota.
Although the author of Little House on the Prairie states that the Ingalls family was given notice by the government that the territory was up for settlement, their homestead was on the Osage Indian reservation, and the notice in the end proved premature. The Ingalls family had no legal right to occupy their homestead, and once informed of their error left the territory despite the fact that they had only just begun farming it and several of their neighbors stayed and fought the decision. [3]
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