What a gorgeous book! And what an interesting twist on biography! Obviously, the Little House books are set in the forests and prairies of the American frontier. We all have vague notions of lots of trees and lots of grass, but this book enables the reader to understand much more fully how those trees and grasses shaped the people of the Little House books that we know and love so much.

I found the book utterly fascinating. I’m not an avid gardener myself, but I enjoy learning about nature. Understanding how very different the prairie of 150 years ago is from the prairie now was eye-opening. I live fairly close to an Indiana state park that is seeking to restore the prairie as it was, and this book was very helpful in learning about the native plants of the Midwest and enabled me to picture more completely the scenes that Mrs. Wilder so vividly describes.

The table that lists each and every flora and fauna covered in Mrs. Wilder’s books is impressive. I especially liked the resources for ordering heirloom seeds for the various species of plants. A wonderful immersive project for a classroom or homeschool family would be to grow a Wilder Garden. Nowadays, it’s overwhelming to think about growing all the food that one’s family might need, and yet back then, it was very common. This books gives insight into what it might have taken to accomplish such a task.

I gratefully received this book as an eARC from the author, publisher, and NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review.

Amazing book. Learned so much. Highly recommend
Would be a good book club pick

A look at the natural history behind the flora and fauna described in Laura Ingalls Wilder's books. A delight to peruse, and I especially enjoyed seeing the rare Helen Sewell illustrations (though I love Garth Williams's also).

Author: Marta McDowell
Illustrations: Helen Sewell, Garth Williams
Publisher: Timber Press
Publication Date: September 20, 2017

I don't know if any elementary students still read Little House on the Praire by Laura Ingalls Wilder, but even if the books were already about 40 years old when I first read them, I was so enamored with life on the plains of America in the early 1900s. Laura Ingalls Wilder, born in 1867 wrote her first book in this series in 1932. It is about their early life as well as her husband's life in Farmer Boy. I guess I just liked that her life was so different from mine as a young girl growing up in a large urban city in Hawaii. Wilder's life was just so different from mine. Her praire and fields were as large as my ocean.

This book brings me back to that reading by giving a lot of the backstory to those books and including similar types of illustrations.

What I really find interesting about this well researched book is that it brings the series alive again by weaving in tips on how to grow the plants and vegetables featured in the Praire series as well as how to actually visit the places even 150 years after Laura Ingalls' birth. The historical and contemporary photographs just make this so appealing to me as an adult. Thank you to the authors and illustrators for the journey of nostalgia.

An advanced copy made available by Net Galley and the publisher for an honest review

As a fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder's LITTLE HOUSE series, I highly recommend this book for others who love the books. It provides an interesting insight into the world presented by Wilder.

This book was really odd. Yes, I suppose the title explains the premise that the reader is exploring Laura's world. But there was just too much trivia. Every little thing about the environment...on and on and on. Endless. I wanted to love it but just didn't.

Full disclosure: I received a free e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ms. McDowell takes us through the gardens, fields, meadows, and towns where Laura Ingalls Wilder and Almanzo lived as children and as adults. There are in-depth descriptions of the plants they encountered along the way, as well as the trials of life they endured. The illustrations alone are worth purchasing the book.

Recommended for public libraries and for academic libraries that have children’s literature collections.

The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder is a wonderful book with an extensive amount of information. This gem highlights the natural world that surrounded Laura and her family. It is full of information, pictures, photos, and maps. It's a cross of a botany book, and reminiscent of a farmers almanac mixed with factual information n our beloved family, as well as updated references. This book belongs in the library of any Little House but is a great standalone book to anyone who just enjoys learning about a natural environment.

This is a nice companion piece to Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" series. It does a nice job of describing the various places her family lived and the flora of each locality. Like "Pioneer Girl," a complementary resource for any Wilder fans.

I grew up with the Little House on the Prairie books and tv series. This was a fabulous background into the world in which Laura Ingalls Wilder grew up. I loved learning about facts and things that I wasn't aware of in that time period. Thank you.

Have you read the books that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote? I did. My mom turned them on for me. I probably wouldn't had read them otherwise. This book is wonderful in that it added more information about what her life was like for her as she grew up. The author goes through each book and gives you maps, facts, activities, crafts, and recipes. Included in the book are family photographs. I learned about the trees, plants and gardens that she grew. I hope to someday to see at least one of Laura Ingalls Wilder homes that have been turned into museums if not all. There is also a family tree.

If you are a fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder books, this is a great addition to have. If you are curious about what the life, land and nature was, this is a good book to read. I am so glad I had the chance to read this!

Perfect for fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder, this book is full of fascinating facts and beautiful illustrations. I highly recommend for fans of Life On The Prairie!

I fell in love for Little House on the Prairie TV series since little. Yes I confess that her books arrived later...
I think I fell in love for your country, I am italian, also because of it.
When I discovered that there was the chance for reading and reviewing a book about Laura Ingalls Wilder, I tried all my best for capturing it in the real sense, more or less of the word.

Let's start to saying that The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder The Frontier Landscapes that Inspired the Little House Books by Marta McDowell will be published by Timber Press this next September 20th.

Add this date to your calendar because, trust me when I tell you that this book is stunningly beauty, serious, detailed.

The book doesn't just describe the books, locations, States, world met by Laura, but it is a real great biography mixed with the environment, Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family met and this fusion of aspects precious and important for remembering a woman who marked so profoundly and in positive ways a lot of generations of Americans and people all around the world presenting enthusiasm and good sentiments to everyone.

A biography of a great woman and writer, with many details about the family of the Ingalls Wilder and later her own family.
The book includes a lot of maps, drawings, illustrations and much more.

I thank NetGalley and Timber Press for this eBook.

Like many women in America, I grew up reading all of Wilder's "Little House" books. For my 10th birthday my mother made me a prairie dress and bonnet so I could pretend that I was Laura Ingalls, living on the prairie and struggling through the many hardships that she experienced with her family. Growing up in Southern California, I wasn't familiar with the places where the Ingalls family lived, but learned a bit about geography and plants through her books.

This book serves as an adult fix for me to learn more about Laura, where she lived, and her local resources. I am amazed at all of the hardships she had to go through, including long blizzards, drought, locust plagues, and more. This book puts a lot of these events in a historical and geographical context.

After reading this book, I am ready to jump into my car and visit each of the locations where the family lived. It has renewed my fascination with this incredible woman!

Thank you to Net Galley and Timber Press for an advance read of this title. I was a child who devoured this series, and I'm sure somewhat alienated myself pretending I was Laura....So, of course, it's likely I'd have liked this book....but I found it wonderful. It follows along the maps of Laura and Almanzo's travels, with beautiful botanical drawings and photographs that bring this area to life. It's a beautiful and well written book.

With accurate and often vivid descriptions, McDowell recreated the places where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived and that readers know from the Little House books. In the first part of the book, each chapter provides a history of each place as well as a natural history description of the flora and fauna located there. Often, the source of this material is Wilder’s own writing, whether it was her memoir Pioneer Girl, her novels, her numerous newspaper and magazine articles, or letters written to family and friends. Other sources include the writings of Rose Wilder Lane, Almanzo Wilder, and Carrie Ingalls Swanzey. McDowell also provides an overall historical perspective to each location and its time in history.

The second part of the book was filled with reference materials. There was a chapter about visiting the various Laura Ingalls Wilder historic sites, including must-sees and that natural resources still there. Another chapter featured a list of all the flora Wilder would have seen it her lifetime and where plus whether or not it was one of the many demonstration plants at the Rocky Ridge Farm site. This section also listed all of the resources used when penning this book and additional further reading.

Throughout the book, insights were provided that expanded on the Little House novels. With its abundance of photographs and illustrations, readers could finally see what Wilder saw and that should help in understanding the various flora and fauna in the novels. McDowell also traveled to many of the places to capture the images and at times interjects her own experiences that were similar to Laura in special asides to supplement the narrative. After reading this, I think I need to reread the novels of my youth and see if it has helped to broaden my understanding of the time and place.

I will come back and add a link to my review once it is posted to my blog, likely in late August or early September, closer to the publication date.

This is an interesting read. I loved the mentions of the Little House books. I enjoyed the garden, crop, nature information and how it all twined together

I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I love Laura Ingalls Wilder. The first chapter book I read by myself was Little House in the Big Woods. Even before that (and after too) I lived in my prairie dress. One year for Christmas, my grandfather got me a washboard and a washtub so I could wash things just like Laura did. We share the same first name. She was my constant companion through childhood. Even as an adult, I go back to her books year after year. I’m always cautious about reading a book about Laura (as opposed to one by Laura). What if this person doesn’t treat ‘my Laura’ the way I feel she deserves to be treated? So I approached The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder with caution.
I needn’t have been worried. Marta McDowell treated Laura with the reverence and love that is befitting of a beloved childhood friend. The book follows Laura and her family through their travels as portrayed in the Little House series (including an excursion to the Wilder farm in New York). At each step, McDowell details the crops, trees, vegetables, and flowers the Ingalls (or the Wilders) encountered. I’m not sure I had noticed the plethora of plant life in Laura’s books before, but they are very much there. My next read-through of her books will have me paying closer attention! And now, thanks to The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder, I have a visual to go with the names.
The pictures were lovely botanical prints, as well as articles and maps from Laura’s time period. Occasionally, I would come across a picture that seemed out of place. While talking about the family’s time in Kansas, there is a picture of a river or a creek, but which one isn’t specified. Is this the same river Mr. Edwards crossed to bring Mary and Laura their presents from Santa? I would love to know!
Sprinkled throughout the book, in italics, are the author’s personal recollections. While interesting, they didn’t feel like they belonged to the book. They were spaced oddly throughout the chapters, and they were infrequent.
The second part of the book was a travel guide of sorts to Laura Ingalls Wilder sites around the US. It made me want to immediately hop in my car and drive to Wisconsin! There is also a thorough, well organized list of plants mentioned in the Little House books. This list also notes which books the each plant appeared in. Next year, I am planting violets.
My ARC was an eBook, but based on the illustrations, I expect the physical copy to be beautiful! I look forward to seeing it in print. McDowell did her research (as evidence in the extensive sources at the end) and her love of Laura blooms across each page. I come from a family of Little House lovers and have already recommended The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder to several aunts and cousins. I really enjoyed the book, finishing it in less than twenty-four hours!

The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder (The Frontier Landscapes that Inspired the Little House Books) by Marta McDowell is the book for anyone who has ever fallen in love with the Little House books. I found it to be a comprehensive look of the land, crops and plants that Laura Ingalls Wilder would have known. Many people may well be aware of these maps, produce, flora and terrain of the regions where she lived, but for someone like me who knew and enjoyed only her books as a child, I found this book to be interesting and enlightening as I traveled back in time to journey with Laura.


Some features of The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder I liked the most were the quotes from the books, of course that’s a given, but also, I enjoyed the author’s personal notes from her own heritage. The varied type of illustrations; drawings and actual photographs from the time period as well as the flora, maps, the Currier & Ives prints and the illustrations that were in the first edition books. I especially loved the Growing the Wilder Garden section near the end of the book. When finished with this book, I had the urge to - first, go find my childhood copies of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books to reread and second, to go plant something that would win Laura’s approval.

This was very interesting! I enjoyed the Little House books growing up and so did my mom. It was a book series that always makes me feel closer to her. I loved being able to read this through Ma's eyes. Much of the series are when Laura was young. It was neat to get an adult perspective on all the moves and the issues they encountered.