Little Town on the Prairie
Front dustjacket with Sewell illustration
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| Author | Laura Ingalls Wilder |
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| Illustrator |
Helen Sewell and Mildred Boyle Garth Williams (1953) |
| Country | United States |
| Series | Little House |
| Genre | Children's novel Family saga Western |
| Publisher | Harper & Brothers |
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Publication date
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November 20, 1941 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 288; 290 pp. |
| OCLC | 6389205 |
| LC Class | PZ7.W6461 Liv |
| Preceded by | The Long Winter |
| Followed by | These Happy Golden Years |
Little Town on the Prairie is an autobiographical children's novel written by Laura Ingalls Wilder and published in 1941, the seventh of nine books in her Little House series. The story is set in De Smet, South Dakota. It opens in the spring after the Long Winter, and ends as Laura becomes a schoolteacher so she can help her sister, Mary, stay at a school for the blind in Vinton, Iowa. It tells the story of 15-year-old Laura's first paid job outside the home and her last terms of schooling. At the end of the book, Laura receives a teacher's certificate, and is employed to teach at the Brewster settlement, 12 miles (19 km) away.
Little Town was a Newbery Honor book in 1942, as the fourth to eighth Little House books all were from 1938 to 1944.
One day at supper, Pa asks Laura whether she will accept a job in town helping to sew shirts; the surge in people newly arrived in town means a need for services such as this. Laura hates the work, but continues because the money will help send her sister Mary to a college for the blind in Iowa. On the Fourth of July, Laura, Carrie and Pa walk to town to attend the celebration. The men organize horse races, and Laura's future husband, Almanzo Wilder, wins the buggy race with his two Morgan horses hitched to his brother's heavy peddler's wagon.
On the homestead, the family's crops of corn and oats are doing well, and Pa plans to sell them to pay for Mary to begin college that fall. In the summer, blackbirds descend and destroy both crops. Laura and Mary resign themselves that Mary will have to wait, but Pa sells one of their cows to make up the amount and Mary gets ready to go after all. When Ma and Pa escort Mary to the college, Laura, Carrie, and Grace are left alone for a week. In order to stave off the loneliness stemming from Mary's departure, Laura, Carrie, and Grace do the fall cleaning; they succeed despite a few mishaps, surprising Ma and Pa when they return.
In the fall, the Ingalls move to town for the winter; they believe the coming winter will not be as hard as the previous one, but as the claim shanty is not weatherproofed, Pa thinks it is best not to risk staying in it. In town, Laura and Carrie attend school again, and Laura is reunited with her friends Minnie Johnson and Mary Power. She also meets a new girl, Ida Brown, the adopted daughter of the town's new minister, Reverend Brown, who claims to be related to John Brown of Kansas. Nellie Oleson, her nemesis from Plum Creek, has moved to De Smet and is also attending the school. The teacher for the fall term is Eliza Jane Wilder, Almanzo’s older sister, who has a nearby claim of her own. Nellie turns Miss Wilder against Laura and Miss Wilder loses control of the school for a time. A visit by the school board restores order; however, Miss Wilder leaves at the end of the fall term.
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