ashleyrknight's review against another edition
5.0
Loved reading this to my kiddos, taught them a lot about how hard kids worked during that time.
jannyslibrary's review against another edition
4.0
I was feeling sad and found this book in a free little library and I remembered loving this whole series as a kid, so decided to re read it.
It's a sweet comforting book to me and I loved all the descriptions of the meals and the animals on the farm.
It's a sweet comforting book to me and I loved all the descriptions of the meals and the animals on the farm.
morganp22's review against another edition
4.0
A lovely story. It’s interesting to see Almonzo’s childhood and how much more stable it was than Laura’s. We see all the hard work that the family did to maintain their large farm and it was a sweet story.
rjvrtiska's review against another edition
5.0
I thought I’d read this one growing up, but I must’ve skipped over it in favor of the books that focus on Laura. Such a lively picture of family farm life at a specific time and place. Adrienne and I found a recipe for the doughnuts and even got one to flip on its own.
hoperu's review against another edition
4.0
When I was little, I preferred the Laura books in this series, but as I got older, I liked this one better. It has mercifully less of the moralizing and preaching than the others, and Almanzo has some fun adventures. I always wanted to be a pioneer, or at least live in the 1800s, and this book helped me imagine that I was there.
kairosdreaming's review against another edition
4.0
Farmer Boy is probably my least favorite of the Little House on the Prairie series. That's not to say it isn't any good, it is, it just is the weakest book out of the series in my opinion.
Wilder diverges from her normal telling of her family, to tell about her husband Almanzo's childhood. His was very different from hers in that he lived on a large successful farm with many brothers and sisters and had quite a few chores. The book starts when he is eight and moves to encompass around a year of his life. It shows him gaining more maturity and being allowed to do harder tasks as he gets older. It also goes into other aspects of his life like interactions with his siblings, school time, and meals that he ate.
The characters, in this case Almanzo and his family, weren't really elaborated on as much. They all were pretty focused on one aspect of their personality (Royal-Dependable, Alice-Kind, Eliza Jane-Bossy, etc.) without diverging too much from the norm. Almanzo acted appropriately for a little boy, but in the book he tended to be quite focused on a few things and these were mentioned over and over.
That wasn't the only repetition though. As much as I enjoyed the food being described, it seemed that every time Almanzo ate he "sighed and tucked in" for more food. I recall reading something similar to that line for each meal described. The rest of the writing was ok, not as good as the rest of the series, but passable. Wilder does include quite a bit of informative detail, like how boots are made and how to saw ice from a lake which I found interesting. One other complaint I would have is that this book jumped from time to time quickly without a real smooth transition. It made it hard to focus sometimes. To note, the writing in this is very mellow and entirely appropriate for children.
Its a wonderful series, and I can see this book appealing more to boys instead of the other girl-based books. It does capture the time well and elaborates on a person that was very much a center of Wilder's life.
Farmer Boy
Copyright 1933
372 pages
Review by M. Reynard 2010
Wilder diverges from her normal telling of her family, to tell about her husband Almanzo's childhood. His was very different from hers in that he lived on a large successful farm with many brothers and sisters and had quite a few chores. The book starts when he is eight and moves to encompass around a year of his life. It shows him gaining more maturity and being allowed to do harder tasks as he gets older. It also goes into other aspects of his life like interactions with his siblings, school time, and meals that he ate.
The characters, in this case Almanzo and his family, weren't really elaborated on as much. They all were pretty focused on one aspect of their personality (Royal-Dependable, Alice-Kind, Eliza Jane-Bossy, etc.) without diverging too much from the norm. Almanzo acted appropriately for a little boy, but in the book he tended to be quite focused on a few things and these were mentioned over and over.
That wasn't the only repetition though. As much as I enjoyed the food being described, it seemed that every time Almanzo ate he "sighed and tucked in" for more food. I recall reading something similar to that line for each meal described. The rest of the writing was ok, not as good as the rest of the series, but passable. Wilder does include quite a bit of informative detail, like how boots are made and how to saw ice from a lake which I found interesting. One other complaint I would have is that this book jumped from time to time quickly without a real smooth transition. It made it hard to focus sometimes. To note, the writing in this is very mellow and entirely appropriate for children.
Its a wonderful series, and I can see this book appealing more to boys instead of the other girl-based books. It does capture the time well and elaborates on a person that was very much a center of Wilder's life.
Farmer Boy
Copyright 1933
372 pages
Review by M. Reynard 2010
govmarley's review against another edition
3.0
This family could EAT. So much good food, horses, oxen, and family. What's not to love about the Wilder family?
mcj_writer96's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Not nearly as memorable as book 1, but Almanzos family is better developed as characters then Laura’s family in book 1.