Little Town on the Prairie

By: Laura Ingalls Wilder

Narrated by: Cherry Jones

Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's Summary

The little settlement that weathered the long, hard winter of 1880-81 is now a growing town. Laura is growing up, and she goes to her first evening social. Mary is at last able to go to a college for the blind. Best of all, Almanzo Wilder asks permission to walk home from church with Laura. And Laura, now 15 years old, receives her certificate to teach school.

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts.

©1941, 1969 Little House Heritage Trust (P)2005, 2016 HarperCollins Publishers

Narrator could’ve done with less twang...

I’m a huge fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and have never understood why audio productions weren’t widely available, so I was very excited to see the whole series appear BUT I don’t understand why the narrator went in the voice direction (particularly for Laura and Pa) that she did.
Laura was born in Wisconsin and grew up in Minnesota and South Dakota—I’m not aware of any very strong regional accent from those places (the author doesn’t do a Minnesota accent at all, it’s a very definite homespun twang), and with the emphasis throughout on proper grammar and her mother having been a teacher, and the lack of ‘local color’/slang words in the text, I’m just perplexed as to why the narrator/director recorded it that way. (I did go back and check the narrators other work, in case that’s just her normal speaking voice, and it’s not, so this was a stylistic choice)
The accent/speaking style is evident in the sample, so just be aware that it doesn’t (as I thought it might) diminish through the text or kind of grow on you (at least it didn’t on me). I finished the audio but it annoyed me mildly throughout.
I’m just disappointed because sometimes audio can add so much to a text, particularly one I’d share with my kids. On the plus side, I do like the inclusion of fiddle music and the song excerpts being actually sung (the narrator does a good job with those, I will say—it adds something hearing a tune rather than just seeing the text printed). Her forced (unnecessarily) accent just makes this one I wouldn’t whole-heartedly recommend as I would a fantastic production.

Review of Little Town on the Prairie

This story is great and engaging! I love Laura Ingalls Wilder. She is a talented writer.
However, what I disliked about this performance was Cherry Jones as the narrator. Her voice is too raspy, too harsh and too loud. It is very hard to listen to her.

Super sweet read

These books never fail to make me happy. I found myself feeling so proud of Mary finally going to the college for the blind, and so proud of Laura getting her teacher's certificate. And Almanzo. <3 Of course I also continued loving the historical context of the story.

Only two more books to go, I think? I'm looking forward to them. :)

Content Advisory for those who want to know:
Mention of strangers swearing, and also a mention of the husband in a family Laura works for swearing while he and his wife constantly argue. (The actual words used are never stated outright.)

Laura witnesses a couple drunk men causing some destruction and singing. (She thinks it's funny.)

Mention of a minstrel show and a song from it is sung that repeatedly uses the term "darkies". Pa himself is in the show and plays one of these characters and apparently wears black face. Because these kinds of shows were common back then none of the characters have a problem with it, but it could make modern readers cringe a bit, and parents may want to have a discussion about it with young children.

Happy to share the laura ingalls books with my kids and read again myself

I am happy to have a way to listen to these books as a family, but I would prefer another narrator. She does a good job with the different voices, but I had to take breaks since I just really don’t like her voice.

good book

Hard to listen to some of the racist stuff but if you can remind yourself it was a long time ago and just get through the dated parts it's a really good book.

love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love it, wonderful narrator best book ever writen 5 stars i love nellies voice so funny

Not THE BEST

Well, honestly this book could be better. Cherry Jones is perky and fun as usual.

A series of a lifetime

Such an amazing series and Cherry Jones is Stellar. My six year old can't get enough and neither can put whole family. We never tire of listening. Thank you!

great story

always a classic and great for all ages love to hear about frontier life. yea

Great

The reader has a nice voice with lots of expression. I would recommend this. Love it

A wonderful rendition !

These books have had a great influence on my life. In these troubled COVID times, they have once again proved to be an inspiration and a comfort. Thank you so much to the talented actress who brings them alive.