Little House Books In Order

Publication Order of Little House On The Prairie Books

Chronological Order of Little House On The Prairie Books

Publication Order of Little House Chapter Books: Laura Books

Publication Order of My First Little House Picture Books

The Little House book series was a collection of autobiographical stories by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The books were originally published by Harper & Brothers and were released between 1932 and 1943, with the ninth entry in the series being released in 1971 after Ingalls Wilder’s death.

There have been many book series and single novels written in this world that Laura created but only hers are the authentic Little House series and that is all this article will focus on.

The books are autobiographical stories of Laura’s own upbringing and revolve around her life in their small home near Pepin, Wisconsin. The series is perhaps best known for the television show that inspired. The Little House on the Prairie aired for nine seasons and had 204 episodes during its run. The show starred Michael Landon, Melissa Gilbert, Karen Grassle, and Melissa Sue Anderson.

Little House in the Big Woods was the first book in the series. The story introduces us to Laura and her family: mother Caroline Lake Quiner Ingalls, father Charles Phillip Ingalls, older sister Mary Amelia Ingalls, and younger sister Carrie. Laura is just a young girl in this book, just five years old, but she begins to learn and practice homesteading skills. The family is visited by Laura’s cousins and they also take a trip to Grandma Ingall’s home. The book does a great job of showing just how hard life was back then with many farm work duties being described. One of the best examples of this is when the kids ask their father to play his fiddle, but he is too tired at the end of the day to do it.

The second book in the series is called Farmer Boy and turns the focus away from Laura and onto her future real-life husband, Almanzo Wilder. The story takes place before Laura was born when Almanzo is about to turn nine years old. There are endless chores on the Wilder farm and the book covers two harvest cycles. We also meet Almanzo’s brother Royal, and Eliza Jane, and Alice, his sisters. Almanzo stays busy with chores as he awakens before 5 am every day to milk cows and feedstock. In later seasons he hauls logs, fills the ice house, trains young oxen, and, if he has time, goes to school.

Little House on the Prairie is the third book in the series and takes place from 1874-1875. The book sees the Ingalls family as Pa decides to sell the house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin and move to the prairie in Kansas. They move to the Indian Territory near Independence, Kansas as it is an area they believe is going to be opened up to homesteaders. There they meet Mr. Edwards, a neighbor, who tells Laura and Mary that he is a “wildcat from Tennessee”. He turns out to be a great neighbor and helps the family in any way that he can, including helping to build their house.

However, the family also ends up meeting a lot of trouble on the prairie. They get extremely sick with “fever ‘n’ ague” which is a fever with severe chills and shaking, later revealed to be malaria. The family is cared for by Dr. Tan, an African American doctor, who helps the whole family back to health. The book also features the Osage tribe who owns land that the Ingall’s family lives on. Her mother has a prejudice against the Native Americans while Laura’s own feelings are more those of a child. The family will eventually need to move on from Kansas as the government tells them that the land must be vacated as it is not legally open for settlement yet. The family leaves before the Army arrived to forcibly remove them.

The family is on the move again in the next book in the series, On the Banks of Plum Creek. The family moves from Kansas to Minnesota and settle themselves on the banks of Plum Creek in Redwood County. Pa builds a house for the family while the girls get to go to school for the first time at Barry Corner School. It is there that they meet Miss Eva Beadle, their teacher. The family also begins to attend the town church on Sundays where they meet new friends. Things are going well for the family until a plague of Rocky Mountain Locust devastates their crops. The family is struggling to survive so Pa heads east alone to get a job in order to make enough money to get them through the year.

By the Shores of Silver Lake sees the family picking up again and moving to South Dakota. They decide to make the move after the family fell ill with scarlet fever. They weren’t unscathed though as Mary was left blind from the illness. Laura becomes Mary’s eyes and helps her with many things in her daily life. The family makes the move to Dakota by train, the children’s first time traveling in this way which excites them greatly. As winter approaches many are leaving to head back East, but the Ingalls family ends up house-sitting for a surveyor. The house is large with all the provisions they need, the family is quite comfortable for the winter. As their father goes to stake a claim, the girls spend their days and nights boarding and feeding all the pioneers.

The series continues with The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, and These Happy Golden Years. Laura finally meets Alonzo in Little Town on the Prairie and the two become more acquainted in These Happy Golden Years.

After her death, an original draft of The First Four Years was published in 1971. The book follows a promise that Laura made to Almanzo about being a farm wife. She never wanted to be one, but she promised him that she would try it for three years. The two then agree to an additional “year of grace” on the farm.

One Response to “Little House”

1. Sue: 3 years ago

   I’m just getting my grand daughter started with the series, she just turned 9 years old

   Reply