BY THE SHORES OF SILVER LAKE
From the Little House on the Prairie series, volume 4
by Laura Ingalls Wilder illustrated by Garth Williams
One always hesitates as to whether these stories of Laura Wilder's childhood belong with fiction or non-fiction, so place this where you have found the others sell best.
This follows On The Banks of Plum Creek, and the Ingalls family go on to Dakota Territory, where they eventually homestead. They pass an initial year in the settlement — the summer in a shack near a trading post, the winter in a deserted cabin. Laura is thirteen, with a healthy adolescent curiosity about the new country; Mary, her sister, has gone blind, but her courage and resourcefulness are a constant inspiration. The coming of the railroad, the influx of settlers, bring new elements into the section.
A splendidly written contribution to factual frontier material, of special interest to the Middle Western market.