Comments on: Top 100 Children’s Novels #84: The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

By: Jeanne

Jeanne — Mon, 21 May 2012 18:43:41 +0000

Helen Sewell did the illustration in the top edition. I like her stuff. She did illustrations for a lot of my favorite books.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Sewell

By: Genevieve

Genevieve — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:40:43 +0000

Always my favorite of the series, definitely.

By: rockinlibrarian

rockinlibrarian — Thu, 17 May 2012 22:51:02 +0000

Oh, it didn’t make the last list? It was one of my favorites of the series, too! (This and On the Banks of Plum Creek). I didn’t vote for any Wilders either time, but if I HAD, I would have given this one the boost!

By: Genevieve

Genevieve — Thu, 17 May 2012 20:49:45 +0000

I don’t think it was as bad as that, Sondy – Almanzo didn’t want to use his own seed corn if he had another option, because without it to plant in the spring, he’d have nothing to farm. But he still went out with Cap to find food for people in town who were going without, and he didn’t have to do that, since he had enough to eat for the winter. I don’t think he did it for the money at all (in fact, I thought they didn’t end up taking any money for it?).

By: Jennifer Schultz

Jennifer Schultz — Thu, 17 May 2012 20:27:41 +0000

Oh, my goodness! These posts are making me want to reread these books (not just the Little House series, but the other books in the polls as well), and I really can’t do that right now.

By: Sondy

Sondy — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:46:21 +0000

This was my husband’s favorite of the Wilder books as a kid (which I hadn’t read). He read them aloud to our son and talked about how Almanzo and Cap “save the town.” I was real disappointed to find out they just did it for money, and they could have used their own seed corn if they were going to save the town! But I still really enjoyed him reading it every night. That was one I couldn’t stand to miss.

By: Betsy

Betsy — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:32:51 +0000

Once I had a toddler and two infants in the house, I began dreading my own “long winters.” I’d always remember Ma and buckle down to the work at hand

By: Erika

Erika — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:49:38 +0000

A relative gave my daughter The Long Winter a few years ago–except she gave the new edition, with that horrible cover and no Williams illustrations inside. I gave it away when we moved and bought her the real one.

What were they thinking? That cover has nothing to do with the plot or mood of the book–and if you look closely, it looks like the girls are wearing cotton dresses, which they probably wouldn’t have been.

By: Louise

Louise — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:38:03 +0000

I still remember reading this on the beach at my grandparents’ summer camp, in the middle of July, and shivering. The writing is so vivid!

I agree, rams – Ma is definitely the heroine of this story.

By: rams

rams — Thu, 17 May 2012 08:53:29 +0000

Glad there are more Long Winter fans (pssst — hay, not corn husks.) Also the book where Ma really shines. To a child, Ma is the spoilsport and Pa is the Master of Revels. Here, however, Pa actually has a mini-breakdown, leaping up to shout at a blizzard, while Ma sets a daily routine that acts as a splint to hobble everyone through till spring .Anyone looking for something to object to will have to settle for Almanzo rubbing snow on frostbite…