Little Town on the Prairie

1941, undated probably 1970s Harper & Row edition
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Illustrated by Garth Williams
Little Town on the Prairie
Original and purchase price unknown
Hardcover in good condition except for worn dustjacket
B+

My cousins gave me this book for Christmas 1975, even though I hadn't read any of the previous "Little House" books.  As such, I've always had a soft spot for it, but it turns out it is the best of the series so far.  Yes, there is a regrettably racist scene, but I was so young when I first read the story that I didn't even understand that it was racist.  Pa and some of the other men perform a minstrel show.  At 7 going on 8, I didn't know what minstrels or "darkies" were.  I thought they were wearing clown make-up.  That's not to say that I'm cool with the scene now of course.  I'm just saying that I look at it differently than I do at the racism of, for instance, Silver Princess.

That scene aside, this is the book that has Kitty, the cute but tough cat; Nellie Oleson and Miss Wilder (Laura's future sister-in-law) being bitches; Laura standing up to them; Mary admitting what a pain she was with her goody-goodiness in her younger days; blackbirds baked in a pie; a spelling bee; Laura making money; name cards; a replica of a teaching certificate; and the beginning of Almanzo's courtship.  Also, some of Williams's best "Little House" illustrations are in this book, like the scene of Laura defiantly rocking the schoolroom seat, and the name card selection scene.  I do have to gripe that he draws Grace as far too tall for a 3-year-old, like in the scene of the four sisters admiring little Kitty.  That picture is adapted for the front cover, so that the girls are standing on the porch of their house in town.  The illustration is extended to the back cover, so that we go down the steps and into the titular town.  To both a child and an adult, this almost three-dimensionality is appealing.