Old Town in the Green Groves

Old Town in the Green Groves
Author Cynthia Rylant
Country United States
Language English
Series Little House
Genre Family Saga
Western novel
Publisher HarperCollins
Publication date
2002
Media type Print (Paperback)
Preceded by On the Banks Of Plum Creek
Followed by By The Shores Of Silver Lake

Old Town in the Green Groves, by Cynthia Rylant, is a novel based on some notes left by Laura Ingalls Wilder and a general knowledge about her life and the times. This book is not officially part of the Little House series, but describes the years between On the Banks Of Plum Creek and By The Shores Of Silver Lake.

This time period includes the birth of Freddie Ingalls on November 1, 1875 in Minnesota. Having endured several years of poor crops and mounting debts in Walnut Grove, the Ingalls family decides to sell their farm and move to Burr Oak, Iowa where Pa has a job offer to help to run a hotel in town. On the way to Iowa, they stay for some time with relatives in South Troy, Minnesota, where Freddy dies at 9 months of age on August 27, 1876. The family proceeds to Burr Oak, where they take up their jobs at the hotel. Grace Ingalls is born in Burr Oak on May 23, 1877.

Finally, the Ingalls family recovers enough to move west once more, back to Minnesota, where By the Shores of Silver Lake begins.