This one is possibly my favourite of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. It's the book in which Laura leaves home to be a teacher for the first time, starts spending more time with Almanzo, and at the end of the book Laura and Almanzo get married. It's a very sweet and old-fashioned courtship. They have their first kiss only after they get engaged. But what makes Laura such a likeable character is how she doesn't just fall into his arms. She resists his advances for months, and when she thinks he prefers someone else she gets angry and tells him to sod off, rather than dissolving into tears. She's so feisty! The first few chapters are truly painful to read too. When Laura is stuck staying with a highly unpleasant woman and she feels so trapped and homesick we feel her despair. It's great writing.
What always strikes me about these books is how different everything was back then. Laura becomes a teacher even though she really doesn't want to, to please her mother. The idea that my mother would tell me what job to do is very alien to me. As is Laura's becoming a schoolteacher at fifteen, and teaching pupils older than herself. Mad. These books have taught me so much about the past, and Laura is possibly one of my favourite book characters ever. And it's even better than she was real.
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