Caroline: Little House, Revisited

This is NOT a book for Children. The more I read, the worse the descriptions were of subject matter that should of not been included in the story. I cherish books but this one will be put in the trash. It is not even worth donating. What a waste of my money.

This book is designed to be Ma's point of view of the events that take place in Wilder's third book in the series, Little House on the Prairie. Be aware from the beginning, this is a much more mature take and is strongly focused on the problems specific to women during this time in history. It describes the things in Ma Ingalls' mind that were not proper to share with her husband or children, such as the details and emotions of her pregnancy, nursing her newborn daughter, and the sensations of intimacy with her husband. This is not a Little House book, this is for adults. If you are the person who just finished the Little House series and are enjoying the happy, picturesque piece of family history, this book might not be on the same wavelength you are expecting. If you are the person who is a Wilder nut and wants to read every piece of related material you can get your hands on, this is an interesting, bold piece you should throw into the mix. If you have read the Caroline Years young adult series by Celia Wilkins and Maria D. Wilkes, seven books detailing the younger years of Caroline Quiner, you will enjoy this for the sheer continuity. This story contains several references to Caroline's childhood, her family, and her courtship with Charles Ingalls. If you have not read the Caroline Years, you can still enjoy this book, but if you have, your reading experience here will be deeply enriched by all the references you will understand. I appreciate the honest portrait of a woman that this story shows, not holding back things like yearning for the company of her sisters or occasional frustrations with her young daughters. I did not care much for the one dimensional portrayal of Caroline throughout the first half of the book. She mostly complains. A lot. About everything. And I understand the point of all that, to show the genuine struggle of traveling into the unknown and to set her up for drastic character development later on in the story, but as a device it was a bit overused. Another thing I didn't much care for was that Caroline was clearly a different character at the end than she was in the beginning, and that was intended to show the extent of her growth and how the family's ordeal in Kansas changed her, but I feel it was a little dramatized. It makes for good reading, but it also indicates that that one tribulation, in a lifetime of tribulations, as we know from the Little House books, could possibly alter Caroline Ingalls so much as a person, implying that this one year of her life made her personality turn 180 degrees. I just found that implication a little unrealistic and diminutive. Other than that, it was a fun read, and I believe that is the most important take away from this story. It was fun to revisit the events we know so well, the prairie fire, Mr. Edwards' Christmas visit, and many more through new eyes.