Little House on the Prairie

 We've been digging into the Little House series now for almost a month and have read Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie. I would recommend these books for a number of reasons in addition to my own nostalgia from reading most or all of the series as a child (I don't remember if I got to the very last book). The language is beautiful and the description of the natural world is poetic and accessible without being overblown. There is also a sense of excitement in the quotidian, which is something we are struggling with at our house during this age of covid-19. We don't live in the woods, so our everyday is not the same, but it feels invigorating to hear about the things Laura and Mary do to pass the time.

In addition, however—and here Little House on the Prairie is different from Little House in the Big Woods—there is sustained narrative engagement with Native peoples. At the beginning of Little House on the Prairie, Pa, Ma, Laura, Mary, and Carrie set off for the Missouri prairie and built a home, squatting on Native land. We haven't finished the book yet, and I don't remember what happens at the end from my first or second grade reading of it, but thus far (about 2/3 in) the Ingalls family has both had a number of encounters with Osage peoples and has had conversation in their home about these encounters. 

These encounters are sometimes shocking to twenty-first century ears, as is the phrase "The only good Indian is a dead Indian." Yet, I have found Little House on the Prairie easier to read with M. than other books that include problematic depictions of Native peoples, such as numerous books in the Boxcar Children series. This is in part because of the fact that the book depicts historical realities, and we can more easily talk about them in a way that makes sense to a 4.5 year old. The book, of course, tells the story from a one-sided perspective, but there is space to introduce the other side, to ask questions such as whose land the Ingalls family is living on, how we want to treat other people, and how Native peoples have been treated historically in the United States. Beyond this, because I am reading aloud, I can eliminate the language around the "Indians'" "wildness." Sometimes it involves quick thinking as I slice and dice the text while reading half a paragraph ahead, but it can be done. In the Boxcar Children, on the other hand, I have found "the Wise Indian" trope more difficult to deal with, simply because it embeds itself in the narrative in a more profound way that I cannot easily explain my way out of (especially to a 4.5 year old).