Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder

It’s not the book , it’s the printing. The lettering is so small that even with a loop I’m not able to read it. I’m afraid to order any more books now and waste my money.

Having also read William Anderson's "Laura Ingalls Wilder - a Biography," this story is much more detailed. It also includes information about Charles and Caroline's families before they were married, even before they were born! You'd be surprised at how many things in Laura's books didn't happen exactly that way in real life, i.e., the events of "Little House on the Prairie" actually happened BEFORE the events described in "Little House in the Big Woods," and their time living near Lake City, Minnesota and Burr Oak, Iowa are not mentioned in Laura's books. It's also interesting to note that they lived in both Walnut Grove, Minnesota and the Big Woods of Wisconsin TWICE! Walnut Grove is where "On the Banks of Plum Creek" took place, even though that name is never mentioned in the book, and the TV series also was supposed to be in Walnut Grove, although it was really filmed in California. Also, the Olesons and Brewsters actually were not the real names of the rich family in Walnut Grove or the quarrelsome people Laura lived with during her first teaching job. Great reading if you always wanted to know more about Laura.

I highly recommend this book for anyone that is interested in how it really was for LIW. Not that any of what you read in her books is fiction, oh no, Laura didn't write fiction, but there are many events and places that are left out of her books, or that she rearranged a little bit. Perhaps on purpose, perhaps on accident. Donald Zochert researched a lot of details by looking in libraries, newspapers, talking to people. He lists years things happen. He uses bright, colorful words, when I read this book, I can actually see Laura and her family trailing across the prairie. This book tells what happens after the books end, and interesting little known facts! I read this many years ago, and am pleased to have just recently purchased a copy. This book is a must for any true LIW fan! The pictures in the middle are a little faint; I have seen better copies of the same photos in different books, but the way the author tells us the way it 'really was' makes up for that fact!

I wept when I read this book. I think I was just so moved to actually SEE the faces of these people I had read about and traveled with in my mind for so many years. I had never watched the TV series much, so I wasn't seeing Melissa Gilbert or Michael Landon when I pictured the Ingalls family. It was so wonderful to be able to give them faces after all these years. I was also overwhelmed by the hardships Laura left out of her books - the depth of the family's financial problems, sickness, etc. While I realize this was probably done with her audience in mind, it was powerful to add these struggles to the ones she wrote about - an incredible burden and an even more accurate picture of what pioneering meant. I agree that it was probably not intended for adults, but I still give it five stars because it is an excellent book, regardless of the intended age.

When my grandmother began reading the "Little House" books to me when I was 8 I don't think she had any idea what she was starting. Until I read "Laura:The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder" I could only imagine what Laura, her family, and the other characters from her books were like, how they effected each other and even how they looked. It was so exciting for me to open the pages of this book and see for the first time the beautiful young woman I had come to know through the years. Donald Zochert's research and care are evident on every page. He transports us into Laura's world and gives us even more details of her fascinating life.

This is the best biography I have read about Laura Ingalls Wilder. A thouroughly engrossing, can't put it down 'til I know all the facts by heart book....one you will read over and over, if, like me, one of your wishes in life is that you could have ever known Laura in person. Lots of details that we LIW fans crave. Two questions I put forth to future Laura biographers that I think we'd all like to see answered in a future Laura book: did Laura ever say why she hadn't thought to choose a name for her newborn son that died?...and could someone research and include children that Carrie and Grace and Eliza Jane and Alice and Perley and Royal, etc. may have had and who they married and where they went off to make their lives, etc? I think alot of us would be interested in seeing the rest of the family trees as they went on.....