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THE FIRST FOUR YEARS

Name: THE FIRST FOUR YEARS
Author: Laura Ingalls Wilder
ISBN: 0060581883

From the Little House on the Prairie series , Vol. 9

by Laura Ingalls Wilder illustrated by Garth Williams ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 1971

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Laura wasn't sure about marrying Manly, she'd 'always said she'd never marry a farmer' . . . For a moment it's all wrong, this manuscript left unrevised by Mrs. Wilder, and then Manly (never 'Almanzo') takes hold, joking and reasoning and promising that they'll quit at the end of three years if he hasn't "made such a success that you are willing to keep on." Compared to its predecessors this is telegraphic, with little dialogue or development of incident; one might also say less fictionalized. and consequently closer to the bone, to the hopes for a good harvest dashed year after year. A twenty-minute hailstorm ruins the first year's work; another crop is struck by three days' hot wind and "the grains were cooked in the milk, all dried and shrunken, absolutely shriveled." But if that one good year evades them, there is recompense in a snug house and mutual sympathy; in adding New Year's at the Wilders' to Thanksgiving at the Boasts' and Christmas at the Ingalls'; in racing the ponies, sledding with Shep, the least new acquisition (once a windfall of Waverly novels); and, with little Rose sleeping or toddling close by, in plowing and haying together and seeing the stock thrive: "It would be a fight to win out in this business of farming, but strangely she felt her spirit rising for the struggle." The spirit as well as the format is that of the Little House (though the format will mislead those who expect a functional resemblance).

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1971

ISBN: 0060581883

Page Count: 163

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: Oct. 24, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1971

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
BENJAMIN’S TREASURE
by Garth Williams & illustrated by Garth Williams

- BOOK REVIEW
J.B.'S HARMONICA
by John Sebastian & illustrated by Garth Williams

- BOOK REVIEW
KING EMMETT THE SECOND
by Mary Stolz & illustrated by Garth Williams

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AHIMSA

by Supriya Kelkar ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2017

This 2015 New Visions Award winner offers a complex narrative and inspires readers to check their privilege to address...

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Although Kelkar’s debut novel takes place in colonial India in the 1940s, when Indian citizens were fighting for independence from British rule, it is uncannily timely: 10-year old Anjali grapples with issues of social justice in many of the same ways young people are today.

When Anjali’s mother quits her job to become a freedom fighter, Anjali is reluctant to join the struggle, as it means she will have to eschew her decorated skirts and wear home-spun khadi (hand-woven cotton) instead, inviting the mockery of her school nemeses. But as her relationship with her mother evolves, her experience of and commitment to activism change as well. When her mother is imprisoned and commences a hunger strike, Anjali continues her work and begins to unlearn her prejudices. According to an author’s note, Kelkar was inspired by the biography of her great-grandmother Anasuyabai Kale, and the tale is enriched by the author’s proximity to the subject matter and access to primary sources. Kelkar also complicates Western impressions of Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi—Anjali realizes that Gandhi is flawed—and introduces readers to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, a figure rarely mentioned in texts for young people in the United States but who is best known for campaigning against social discrimination of Dalits, or members of India’s lower castes.

This 2015 New Visions Award winner offers a complex narrative and inspires readers to check their privilege to address ongoing injustices. (Historical fiction. 8-12)