Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I received my Little House box set MANY, MANY years ago for Christmas, and it sat on my shelf, a treasure waiting to be fully discovered, for the better part of 2 decades. As an English major, I've spent many hours with Shakespeare, Jane Austen, the Brontes, Edith Wharton, and scores of other wonderful writers. Then one day, my best friend told me that she was reading "Little House in the Big Woods" to her 1st grade class, and that, to a child, boys and girls alike were mezmerized during story time - she'd never seen them pay such good attention. That was all it took. One Sunday morning, I walked up to the attic, and brought down my set. Since then, I've read straight through them, often into the wee hours of the morning. The writing is outstanding (it actually becomes more grown up right along with the characters), and of course the love story is beautiful, but this series has much more to offer its readers - young and old. For one, you get a much deeper sense of how generations before us struggled, toiled really, to make this country what it is today. And the sense of family is amazing, particularly as Laura becomes old enough to live away from home and realize just how wonderful her family is. Every child should read them. Better yet, every family should read them aloud, together. I certainly plan to read them aloud to my kids.