What a joy it was to read On the Banks of Plum Creek
with my daughter Penelope this year. We
started this novel right before we went on our family voyage to Walnut Grove at
the end of July. It was wonderful to
actually walk through the prairie and see the same flowers and same sights that
Laura Ingalls also saw in On the Banks of Plum Creek. It was a great book experience for both
Penelope and myself. More on our journey
at this link.
On the Banks of Plum Creek is the story of the Ingalls
family’s voyage to Minnesota. After they
left their cabin on the prairie that they had illegally built on Native
American land, they buy land in Minnesota that includes a dugout. Living in a dugout is a new experience for
the Ingalls family and Ma is not pleased.
Luckily, Pa gets a loan to buy new timber and build them a new house –
their first house made of purchased wood boards. The loan is taken out based on what looks to
be a bunker wheat group, but tragedy soon strikes with grasshoppers landing in
Minnesota and devastating the area. How
will the Ingalls family make it with no money, a large debt, and no food to
eat? They are in one of their lowest
moment of the series.
Laura and Mary also attend school for the first time
and meet the infamous Nellie Olson.
Nellie is the spoiled daughter of the owners of the general store. She has a life much, much different than
Laura’s as she discovers attending a birthday party at Nellie’s. Nellie has purchased toys, store bought
clothes, furniture, and carpets. Laura has
a country birthday where she serves up revenge to Nellie Olson.
In contrast to Nellie, Laura has only one beloved toy,
her doll Charlotte that she got for Christmas in the first book in the series,
Little House in the Big Woods. Charlotte
has traveled through the West with Laura, but her story takes a tragic turn in
On the Banks of Plum Creek when Ma makes Laura give away Charlotte to a younger
neighbor girl in a chapter appropriately named “The Darkest Hour is Just before
Dawn.” I love this chapter and feel it
is the strongest and most disturbing chapter in the book that really taps into
the emotions of a child. My son Kile ran
from the room when I read this too him when he was five, and now years later,
my five year old daughter Penelope was frankly disturbed by it. “Why?” she kept asking. I was unsure how to answer. I know Ma didn’t
want Laura to be a selfish little girl, but having her give away her one
beloved toy just seemed cold.
Life on the prairie was brutal. Besides the crop failure, the family had to
endure a hard winter. “Laura shivered in
her shawl. She kept staring at the blank
window-panes, hearing the swishing snow and the howling, jeering winds. She was thinking of the children whose Pa and
Ma never came. They burned all of the
furniture and froze stark stiff.” How
scary it would be as a child to be caught alone in your house during a
blizzard!
I love the scene when Pa is trapped in a snow bank so
close to their house during a sudden blizzard and how Ma keeps a lantern in the
window for him at night although she tells the girls he stayed in town. This is a story I loved while reading this
book as a child and I still loved reading again as an adult.
My favorite quotes:
“Pa’s slow voice answered, ‘We’re safe enough, all
right. Nothing can happen here.’”
“Out on the prairie there was a long grey rock. It rose up above the waving grasses and
nodding wild flowers. On top it was flat
and almost smooth, so wide that Laura and Mary could run on it side by side,
and so long that they can race each other.
It was a wonderful place to play.”
My kids sat on this rock this summer!
“’Now, Charles,’ said Ma. ‘Here we are, all healthy and safe and snug,
with food for the winter. Let’s be
thankful for what we have.’” (Christmas and Pa wants horses, which eventually
the entire family wants.)
“Laura knew now that there were things stronger than
anybody. But the creek had not got
her. It had not made her scream and it
had not made her cry.” (Laura almost drowns in the creek – behold the power of
water!)
Overall, On the Banks of Plum Creek gives a genuine
portrayal of what life was like on the Minnesota prairie for a pioneer
family. It gives the reality of what it
was like to live during brutal times. The
magic of Wilder’s writing is that she writes everything from the child’s
perspective and gets it so right. It
makes children today 150 years later able to relate to the story. It also is relatable to me as an adult
remembering what it was like to be a child and also fascinating to me from a
historical perspective. It’s a book not
to be missed and should be read at least once in your lifetime! Penelope and I have now moved on to By the
Shores of Silver Lake.
What was your favorite book as a child?
Have you visited any locations from any favorite
novels?
If you’ve read this book, what is your favorite scene?
Book Source:
Purchased from Amazon.com as a set a few years ago as my beloved
childhood set was falling apart upon reread.
