Are You Ready for the Longest Winter Ever?

Ever since I was eleven years old, I fell in love with a series of books authored by Laura Ingalls Wilder known as the "Little House" series. This series of books tells the life of Laura Ingalls, who lived in various places throughout her young life from the big woods of Wisconsin to the prairies of South Dakota. And all along in between, she had a quite innocent and fascinating life with her Pa, her Ma, and sisters.

Throughout my life when things were stressed out, I would often turn to my collection of Little House books and hide myself into my bedroom, becoming one with Laura again. And when the cool winds of winter would come into South Louisiana, I would curl up again with The Long Winter telling of the harsh winter that almost destroyed the prairie towns with starvation when the trains did not run for several months back in late 1880-1881.

Recently, I have been going through some bad times in my life where there has been stressful unavoidable situations threatening my finances. And even though it isn't winter, I find myself curling up and reading Laura Ingalls story of survival through almost impossible odds knowing that if she and her family could do it, I can do it too.

Why It's Impossible to Describe The Long Winter

I've really sat here and tried to put into words what I should tell you about The Long Winter. While it is easy for individuals to discuss certain chapters and excerpts, I feel that with Laura Ingalls' books that when you try to do that there is a loss of the anticipation and surprise involved with the turning of each page. With that in mind, I will not try to list the chapters here and discuss them but give you an overall feel of what The Long Winter tries to share with us through Laura's thoughts and words.

First, The Long Winter shares the deep love of family and togetherness. This is something that is sorely lacking in today's world in many families. The idea that a family could share their lives together as a unit is something that is lacking today. Laura goes out of her way to give of herself to her family with her time and effort and even her personal belongings so that the family would be able to survive and thrive not only in the good but bad times of this time of harvest and extreme winter.

How many of our children would truly be able to understand the strife of those times and be able to give unconditionally of their own selves to benefit someone else? I wonder this at times because of the selfishness that I see in the world. In The Long Winter each person does their best to help the others. Pa goes out of his way to find a way to provide for his family. Ma finds ways to inspire everyone with encouragement and her ability to make something out of nothing. And Laura finds that even as a young teenager that she can stand with Ma and Pa through bad times to become a focal point in the survival of the home.

Second, The Long Winter shows determination. In one of the chapters, Almanzo Wilder, a homesteader who is staying in town with his brother during the winter, comes to a conclusion that the town will starve unless someone "does" something. When others could not take action, he and a teenager take action and a chance to save the town from this disaster. The determination and faith displayed by these characters in these circumstances gives me the ability to have faith and determination too through impossible situations.

Last, The Long Winter finally shows us that even though bad times may continue for some extended amount of time that if you endure, good times are bound to come back again. Through seven months of winter blizzards, the little town with all of its residents manage to survive to thrive once more after spring finally comes back again. This book gives me the ability to know that no matter what, that something good will again come my way if I don't give up and let the misery of the current situation overcome me.

But This is a Children's Book Right?

Yes, The Long Winter as well as the other Little House books are basically children's books, and I first learned about these books while I was in elementary school. However, there's been a part of Laura Ingalls that has lived in me to some point all of the days of my life where when I feel down and beaten I search for these books once more to find courage or whatever I am needing at that time.

And in each time that I have read these books, and especially The Long Winter, I come way with remembering a little bit more of the story to replay at times when I am apart from the words printed on the page pondering them in my heart.

There's something about the love of Ma and Pa, their faith, the songs that Pa would play on the fiddle, and many more things that makes The Long Winter a story to read any time, not just during winter. And that is really why I have kept a copy of The Long Winter with me almost all the days of my life.

Drawbacks?

Like many books, there are drawbacks to The Long Winter that I would like to mention to you.

The main thing that is a drawback is that many young people will not find this book appealing. Most of the book is written about blizzards, cold, and times that are alien to our present times. After all, each one of us probably would never find ourselves isolated from others by blizzards in winter cold, trying to keep warm and not freeze to death, and starving to death eating the same thing every day for months. Our society has too many ways to provide for this to be a reality.

The other thing that is a drawback to this book is the seven months of blizzards part of the book and the predictions that each seventh winter is a hard winter with a twenty-first winter being the hardest of the cycle. I've been trying to figure out which winter has been a seventh and twenty-first winter for a long time. I've seen mild winters in the Dakotas on the Weather Channel, but having a reality perspective of the Long Winter in reality? It seems rather far-fetched to me, but in the past according to history the winter of 1880-1881 was as bad as what was described. Will such a thing happen again? I don't know, but with global warming I tend to not believe so. This also makes the reader really wonder if it was "really" that bad as what was described.

Overall Conclusion

As you read more about Laura Ingalls' life through all of her books, it is apparent that of all of the Little House books that The Long Winter probably is the most "boring" of them all. It's the one that is most likely to be sitting on the library bookshelf when the other books are checked out. And it's the most likely one to "skip" when you're reading the series through from front to back because of the monotonous repetition of the stories of the snow, cold, and hunger.

However, I believe there is great worth with reading The Long Winter as a complete part of the Little House series, and I pray that as a reader of this article that you realize what that worth truly is. This one book gives you so much if you really sit down and read through it in depth, and the realization that through faith and the determination of one's family, you can survive through hard times together.

Therefore, I believe that The Long Winter is definitely a book that should be a part of a child's library and I give it a high recommendation.