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1-Page Summary of Little Town On the Prairie
Overall Summary
Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote Little Town on the Prairie in 1941. It was one of her many books based on her life growing up in De Smet, South Dakota. The book is about a girl named Laura who lives with her family and experiences unique challenges as she comes of age. The book received a Newbery Honor award in 1942 for its unique female voice that lent itself to American literature
It was a record-breaking winter in the American Midwest. One day, a fifteen year old girl named Laura is having dinner with her father. He asks her if she’s going to town for work because there are many jobs available there that women can do. She takes up one of those jobs at an apparel company and despises it because it is monotonous and tedious. However, she keeps working so that she can send her sister to school in Iowa for blind people. That summer on Independence Day, Laura goes walking with Pa and Carrie (her mother) to celebrate with their neighbors when they see Almanzo (Laura’s future husband). He wins a buggy race during the celebration.
On the family farm, crops are growing well. Pa and Ma expect that they’ll have enough money to send Mary to college next year. However, blackbirds destroy their crops before she can go to school. They’re upset but decide that it’s okay for her not to attend college yet because they still have enough money from selling a cow. The Ingalls parents take Mary away while Laura, Grace and Carrie stay at home on the farm in De Smet, South Dakota
When Laura and her family move to town, they find a new home that is safer than their last one. They also meet new friends in the community. Their neighbor’s daughter, Nellie Oleson, is mean to Laura and makes life difficult for her at school. The teacher decides she can’t handle it anymore so she quits teaching.
During the winter session, a new teacher arrives at school. He’s named Mr. Clewett and he teaches Laura subjects that will help her get into college to become an English teacher like him. The town throws literary events such as minstrel shows, spelling bees, and singing contests. After a birthday party for one of her classmates named Ben Woodworth, Laura grows closer with her friends because she has more social interaction now than when she was just studying all the time in order to get good grades (which is something that teachers want). However, this newfound social life distracts Laura from doing well in school so she doesn’t do as well on tests or homework assignments and therefore needs to take additional studies during the summer which is something that most students have to do if they fail classes during their regular school year. The following year another teacher comes along named Mr. Owen who teaches Almanzo how to drive horses since his family owns some farmland outside of town where they grow crops and raise livestock including horses which are used for farming purposes like pulling plows through fields or carrying crops back home after harvesting them out in the field by hand because there weren’t any tractors yet invented yet back then but now there are plenty of tractors around these days instead of using horse-drawn wagons anymore but anyway I digress…
The book concludes around Christmas. The school needs financial support and additional space, so Mr. Owen decides to throw an exhibition event to raise money. He asks Laura and Ida to deliver a presentation on American history in the hope that they can pull it off without any problems. They do so with no problem, and Carrie recites a well-received poem as well. Almanzo takes Laura home after the event ends and invites her to ride on a sleigh he is building for her birthday next year.
