Guest post by Eddie Higgins If ever I find my calendar getting booked up with several social occasions in one week, I indulge my inner Laura by saying out loud, “I am living in such a whirl of gaiety lately,…

by Sandra Hume and Erin Blakemore Sandra: Sigh. Literaries. Erin: The chapter title does not bode well, folks. One would almost think that Ma had got a hold of a Dickens serial or an edifying work of Mr. Bulwer-Lytton. No…

Guest post by Amanda Morris This chapter begins with a visit from Mary Power, informing Laura that the Ladies’ Aid Society is giving a dime sociable and asking if she can attend. Laura does not know what a dime sociable…

Guest post by Lauri Goforth If anyone saw the sign-ups, I pretty much begged for this chapter.  We’ve met Laura.  We’ve met Almanzo.  They’ve seen each other, but for the first time in this chapter they have a chance to…

Guest post by Annika Laura thought that Nellie Oleson looked disappointed when she and Carrie came into the schoolhouse the next morning. Nellie might have expected that they would not come back to school. “You wouldn’t let her meanness keep…

Guest post by Melanie Stringer Sent Home from School has always been a stand-out chapter for me.  Even when reading it as a child and teenager, I found it a noticeable departure from the usual depiction of  Laura’s harmonious obedience…

Laura was enjoying school. And it does sound like Laura is really enjoying school. She has good friends in Ida, Mary Power, and Minnie. She feels comfortable enough to play games with the little boys, when they ask, and not…

Guest post by Barb Boustead In sharp contrast to the start of the Long Winter, the Ingalls family is preparing itself for the worst that winter can bring by harvesting and moving to town before any blizzards can catch them…

Guest post by Amanda Morris Now that the family has realized its dream of sending Mary off to college for the blind, it is also time for Laura and Carrie to go back to school. The chapter opens with the…

The last day came. Tomorrow Mary was going away. She would finally be able to go to the Iowa College for the Blind in Vinton, Iowa. When I was a young girl, reading this chapter, it was sad and I…