By the Shores of Silver Lake

1939, 1971 Harper & Row edition
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Illustrated by Garth Williams
By the Shores of Silver Lake
Original price $1.95, purchase price $1.50
Poor condition paperback
B

Since I don't own On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937), we're going to jump ahead about six years, to when Laura is turning 13.  Grace has been born and Mary has gone blind.  And since Pa is broke, the family must move on again.  But this time they settle in the area where the rest of the series is set.  This book shows how the Ingallses move to an unsettled area that, come springtime, gets settled quickly.  It's a more social book than in the past, although most of the people the family meets are "rough" men. 

The conflict of Ma and civilization vs. Indians, tomboys, etc. continues in this story.  I was most intrigued by Laura's friendship with fellow tomboy Cousin Lena.  And it's ironic that the two girls discuss the marriage of a girl their age, when Laura's future husband shows up several chapters later.

Williams's illustrations are better than in Prairie, my favorite being smiling Laura poking her head into the storeroom.  One thing that really strikes me on this reread of the series is how the simplest things please the children, particularly at Christmas-time.  And, yes, Mr. Edwards comes back, along with the minister from Plum Creek, and Aunt Docia and some of the other "Big Woods" relatives.

I remember that as a child Mary irritated me.  And in this book I can see why.  It's not just that Mary is goody-goody.  It's also that when Laura is kindly being her "eyes," Mary still has to nitpick, or brag about how she can sew better than Laura in the dark.  Also, it breaks my heart that Laura is pressured into being a teacher even though she doesn't want to be, now partly to send Mary to a college for the blind.  I know it's the Victorian period (and written during the Depression), but what about Laura's dreams?  Still, this is a step up from Prairie.