Rating: 
Summary: real history
Review: This is the story of one year in the life of a family long ago in America. They were happy in their "Little House in the Big Woods". Ma, Pa, Mary, Laura, baby Carrie and dog Jack decide to move west so Pa would have more room to hunt. Pa is a hunter extraordinaire and earns an excellent living for the family. But the woods where they live get more crowded every year so there are less animals to go around. They pack up and move away from their dear home to a new, unknown land.Their covered wagon makes a great camping vehicle and they enjoy a nice camping trip on their way. They would stop driving for the day, Pa would go out hunting, Ma and the girls would set up camp, and Pa would come back with the evening's supper. They cooked it over a fire, ate the leftovers for breakfast, packed up, and were back on the road for the day. When they arrived at what Pa said was "home", it was nothing but a big space of grass. Where would they live? No problem.
Pa knows how to build a house with logs, make furniture, dig a well, and build a stable for the horses. That Pa can do anything! The land is free, the hunting is free, building the house and digging the well is free. By the time they plant the garden, I guess they would have no need of money. But they do get money. Why? Because Pa is a hunter, remember? And a good one. He sells the furs, and the hunting is so plentiful in this area that he has no trouble at all. The neat thing about this book is that it describes how to do many things: How to build the house, How to make a rocking chair, How to cook over the fire, and describes a clever way to protect your home from a prairie fire that really works! Many popular songs are also included as Pa plays the fiddle in the evening. Some we remember and some we wish we knew. Because of these things and because of the indians, this was a book that my boys enjoyed right along with my daughter. My husband, the couch potato, even became interested and rented some "Little House" videos. This is the best kind of history. It's like talking to your grandma and hearing the real story of what things were really like for real people. If you like history, you will love this book.
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