“The dim wagon track went no farther on the prairie, and Pa stopped the horses.”

From Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House: On the Banks of Plum Creek.

After being forced from their Kansas home, the Ingalls family moves to Minnesota in an attempt to start again and create a sustainable family farm. After building a small house and planting crops, Pa, Ma, Mary, Laura, and Carrie Ingalls settle into their new life, looking forward the financial stability that the first harvest will bring to the family. While their education had previously been provided by their mother at home, their new homestead’s close proximity to a town allows Mary and Laura the opportunity to attend school with other children from town. Attending school each day provides some exciting and anxious feelings for the girls, but the biggest issue that they encounter comes from fellow classmate, Nellie Oleson, who wealth encourages her to look down on the Ingalls family. However, Mary and Laura’s issues with Nellie are soon all-but-forgotten when Plum Creek and the surrounding area is swarmed with devastating grasshoppers that dash the family’s hopes and places their future in danger. To provide for his family, Pa must travel far in search of work, while Mary and Laura give up attending school to help Ma in Pa’s absence. As the many hardships drag on, both Pa and the family left at home look forward to the day when they can be together again.

The fourth book in the Little House series is full of charming characters and mesmerizing happenings. Picking up where the previous book left off, Wilder allows the familiarity of the characters to build the backbone of the story. On the Banks of Plum Creek is an even-paced piece of historical fiction that highlights the struggles of the past and the power of family that will appeal to readers, both young and old.