T is for These Happy Golden Years

Title: These Happy Golden Years

Author: Laura Ingalls Wilder

Original Publication Date: 1943

Year I First Read:  1984

Category: Fiction, Juvenile Fiction, Teen/YA Fiction, Historical Fiction

Basic Summary:  In the beginning of the story, Laura is on the way to her first teaching job, which is away from home.  Every week in the cold and snow, Almanzo comes to pick Laura up and take her home to her family.  Later, Laura returns to going to school in town, and many more events take place until the end of the book when she marries Almanzo.

What I remember:  This is hard to say I have re-read this book so often since then.  I was nine-ish when I first read it, though, after I had read the rest of the Little Series over the previous two years or so.  Several things made the biggest impression on me when I first read it, though.   One is when May came home from college in Iowa to visit. Another is the chapter with the tornado with three funnels that kills a boy and two donkeys.   Another is when Laura and Ma are preparing Laura’s clothes for her wedding.   

What I Took Away From the Book:  Don’t go riding out in the country in a buggy when there might be a tornado.  Your true love might show up at the door with wild horses to be broken.  If you are teaching school for the first time, don’t stay in a house with knives.  And finally, life can be difficult, but it gets better. 

Rating (1-5 Stars): 5 Stars (Then and now.)