On the Banks of Plum Creek
From Little House on the Prairie Wiki
On the Banks of Plum Creek is the fourth book written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It was published in 1937 and illustrated by Garth Williams.
[edit] Story
The Ingalls family moves from Kansas to Minnesota and settle in a dugout "on the banks of Plum Creek" as in book's title. Pa trades his horses Pet and Patty to the property owner (a man named Hanson) for the land and crops, but later Pa gets two new horses at Christmas time, which Laura and her sister Mary name "Sam" and "David". Pa soon builds a fine, new house made of boards, which the family moves into. The house is near a town called Walnut Grove. During this story, Laura and Mary go to school for the first time where they meet their teacher, Miss Eva Beadle. They also meet the mean and snobby Nellie Oleson who makes fun of Laura and Mary for being "country girls".
Laura plays with her pit bulldog Jack when she is home, and she and Mary are invited to a party at the Oleson's home. Laura and Mary invite all the girls (including Nellie) to a party at their house to reciprocate. The family soon goes through hard times when a grasshopper plague destroys all the crops in that part of Minnesota. The severe grasshopper plagues of the late 1870's and early 1880's - which ended in the 1890's as suddenly as they had begun - can be read about in depth in the Wikipedia article "Rocky Mountain Locust". The book ends with Laura's Pa returning safely to the house after being unaccounted for during a severe four day blizzard. Laura is portrayed in this book as being from being seven to nine years old.
[edit] Little House Books
- Little House in the Big Woods (1932)
- Farmer Boy (1933)
- Little House on the Prairie (1935)
- On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937)
- By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939)
- The Long Winter (1940)
- Little Town on the Prairie (1941)
- These Happy Golden Years (1943)
- The First Four Years (1968)
