A Little House Traveler: Writings from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Journeys Across America (Little House Nonfiction)

This book contains two previously-published works of Laura Ingalls Wilder, namely "West from Home" and "On the Way Home", along with some letters that she wrote and some introductory material. There are lots of photographs too. In my opinion, the book is a must for adult fans of the "Little House" books, or academics studying Wilder's life, as long as they don't already own "West from Home" or "On the Way Home". I don't think it would be so suitable for children, due to the writing style.I bought the paperback version. It is robust enough and the print quality is pretty good.

I grew up reading my mum's copies of the Little House and Anne of Green Gables books, and I hope at some point to read these to my own children, and pass my love onto a new generation. For some reason, despite my frequent forays into the Little House spin offs (Caroline/Rose), this has been sitting forgotten on my shelf.This is a collection of three periods of time throughout Laura's life - firstly the 1894 journey from South Dakota to Missouri. Then letters that Laura sent back home to Almanzo, while she was visiting Rose in San Francisco and then lastly, diary entries covering their journey back "home" after 40 years, to South Dakota.The first two books, I purchased recently, before realising my mistake, as these are both included in this volume, which I have had for sometime. So you can collect these individually,  On The Way Home  and  West From Home . These are both pretty cheap to buy individually, but had I realised I already owned them, in this volume, i would not have purchased them. However, the last part, The Road Back, does not seem to have been published individually, so this volume is worth picking up for that. The individual copies do seem to have covers that tie in with the various LHOTP editions that are out there, which is perhaps why they were published separately - this edition seems to be more aimed at adult readers, but do not make the same mistake that I did.As I said in my review of On The Way Home, most of the first part of this is covered in  Little House On Rocky Ridge , from Rose's point of view, so if you have already read that, you will recognise a lot of what Laura mentions in her diary entries. this section is bookended with a lengthy intro/outro by Rose.The second volume, West From Home, has a nearly 50-year-old Laura, taking the long train journey from Missouri to San Francisco, and having to change trains multiple times. This was in 1915, a distance of just over 2000 miles, to the West Coast, which made me feel exhausted just reading the multiple changes and waits she had. A lot has been made of whether Rose was Laura's "ghostwriter" of her famous Little House series, but from reading this, I would say that Laura had the details down perfectly, from some of her descriptions of the towns that she passed through and the things that she did. I haven't read any of Rose's own books for comparison, such as  Let The Hurricane Roar  and  Free Land  and it could be that she had a hand in helping/influencing her mother. As Laura does mention in Almanzo's letters that they are writing together. I disagree with a couple of the letters that Rose sends back to her father, describing "Mamma Bess" as being "fat" - from the sounds of things, she was probably eating really well for one of the few times in her life, and wasn't caring about counting pennies, since Rose seemed to be paying for stuff. Most of this book occurs after the last "fictionalised"  account  of Rose's life, which takes her up to meeting Gillette Lane.The Road Back is quite a bittersweet section of the book, as a 64 year old Laura and a 74-year-old Almanzo travel by Buick from Missouri, to South Dakota, approximately about 750 miles. They go back to where they met and fell in love. Ma & Pa Ingalls (made famous by Michael Landon and Karen Grassle in the TV series) are long gone by this point (having died in 1902 and 1924 respectively). Mary had also died in 1928, but Laura drops in on Carrie and Grace, her two younger sisters - both married without kids from what I could gather, although one of them does have a stepson. It does come across as a bit that they didn't really stay in touch after their parents died, but this could have been due to the distance between them as well. (I half expected Nellie and Mrs Oleson to pop up - but as Laura has said, Nellie was a combination of girls.)At the end of the book, there is a family tree, and some letters that were sent to Laura from children who had read and loved her books - presumably more of these cab be found in this  book . It also looks like more of her letters can be found in  this  but I'm not sure how much of a repeat that will be.The last page, contains a poignant scan/photo of Laura's last letter to her daughter, a couple of days before her death in February 1957. This is something that I had been wanting to see throughout this volume, to see something of her hand writing.There are other books out there that go deeper from what was written in the original series of books, but some of them can be quite expensive - I'm looking at you,  Pioneer Girl . I will get around to getting them all at some point, but if you're looking for a cheaper alternative, to take you back in time, this is recommended. Just make sure you haven't bought it already.

Loved it ..manylon thanks

loved this book

Anyone who has watched tv programe will enjoy this book

if you enjoy the little house books you might enjoy this i did a diary more than a story though

Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books were my favourite as a child, so discovering that there was a further book about her life that I hadn’t read, I added it to my wish list. While not written with the same charm as her earlier books, the three journeys described in A Little House Traveler give us new insight into Laura, the adult she became, and how she viewed the changing world around her.All three trips described in the book are written in Laura’s own words either in journal entries or letters. We are therefore given a fascinating view of her character and the things that concerned her. For example, she records the temperature every day of their journey to Missouri as well as how much land cost in the places they passed through. Later, on the visit back to De Smet, she records how much money they spent each day and the state of the accommodation in which they stayed.While I didn’t find the book gripping reading, I did enjoy getting to know the adult Laura a little, and was able to appreciate how much the world, and particularly America, of course, changed during her lifetime.

wish I'd read the reviews, this is a compilation of books I already own! Luckily the last book was great.