These Happy Golden Years - Too Much to Cover in One Book

My seven year old daughter is enthralled with Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series. We have been reading the series together at bedtime. These Happy Golden Years is the 8th book in the series and picks up where Little Town on the Prairie left off.

The Story
The Ingalls family (Pa, Ma, Laura, Carrie and Grace) are settled and living near De Smet in Dakota territory in the 1880s while oldest daughter Mary attends a college for the blind in Iowa. These Happy Golden Years follows Laura's life as she takes on her first teaching assignment just shy of her 16th birthday, courts Almanzo Wilder and eventually marries him in August of 1885.

Our Experience
The Happy Golden Years is certainly aptly named. Many of the previous books recount the struggles of this pioneering family, but These Happy Golden Years tells the story of, while not a well to do family, one that is comfortable. Pay from one of Laura's teaching assignments is used to buy Mary an organ; definitely a luxury item. Laura also uses some of her money to buy fashionable clothes; no longer is there a need to rip dresses apart and sew them inside out so they don't look so faded. Relatively speaking, there is a lot of action in These Happy Golden Years. Laura has some challenging teaching assignments, difficult living arrangements and Sunday drives with Almanzo as the couple breaks a number of different horses. The book bounces quickly from one event to the next so there always seems to be something new in Laura's life.

Much of the book focuses on Laura and Almanzo's courtship. Laura seems quite naïve at times, unsure why Alamnzo is paying so much attention to her. At times she treats him rudely, although not with malice just inexperience with relationships. But, obviously smitten with Laura, Almanzo pursues her until she agrees to marry him.

At times I felt like something was missing from These Happy Golden Years. The book at times felt rushed and lacked the detail of previous books. Gone are the descriptive narratives of the prairie surroundings and daily life.  While the romance is interesting it sometimes feels shallow and sadly, the book never conveyed to us that Laura is in love with Almanzo. Family has taken a backset in These Happy Golden Years and my daughter and I both missed the rest of the Ingalls.

Final Thoughts
We certainly enjoyed These Happy Golden Years but the book was much too short for the time period in Wilder's life. So much happened in nearly 3 years that she apparently wanted to fit in the book that she skimped on some of the details that make her other books feel so real. These Happy Golden will definitely appeal to those who typically find Wilder's books heavy with description but fans will still find something to enjoy.