| Title | : | These Happy Golden Years (Little House, #8) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0060264802 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780060264802 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 289 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1943 |
| Awards | : | Newbery Medal (1944) |
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts
These Happy Golden Years (Little House, #8) Reviews
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This is the book I read the night before I got married ten years ago. The reason for this? I think that "These Happy Golden Years" is the first book that I ever read in which a courtship and marriage was described in any detail - I was probably 8 or 9 on first reading of it. It seemed eminently suitable to read before my own marriage.
The book makes me happy inside, the gentle way that Laura and Almanzo become a couple and go out on rides together. Almanzo's persistence in courting Laura, and the fact that he collected her every week in freezing winter weather from the first school she taught is beautiful. The times spent with friends and family, and happy teaching experiences for Laura are also lovely to read. She's a woman who knows she's loved and loves back wholeheartedly.
But the book is also bittersweet. It's the last proper Little House book ("The First Four Years" doesn't count as far as I'm concerned!) and everyone is growing up or growing old and it's that moment of change from child/teen to adult, dependence to independence that makes it so poignant. -
I read this after visiting De Smet, and it was so lovely to be able to fix this unabashedly romantic YA novel firmly in its real-life location. On our last day in South Dakota we drove all around the lakes – Spirit Lake and Lakes Thompson and Henry – and out to the former tree claim where Laura and Almanzo’s first home was, and so in reading this book I was able to take a little nostalgia trip of my own, following the paths of their buggy rides.
I love Laura and Almanzo’s courtship (which is really what this book is about). He is so patient and so determined, and in some way, though he’s the older and more worldly of the two of them, he’s more shy. And Laura really takes her time figuring out whether or not they are right for each other (Almanzo seems pretty sure all along). Late in the book when Mary asks her, “Do you really want to leave home to marry that Wilder boy?” Laura protests, “He isn’t that Wilder boy any more, Mary. He is Almanzo… I guess it’s because we just seem to belong together.” She means that.
Other notes:
-- I love Laura’s joy when she comes home from the Brewster School for the first time - I love appreciating her loving, cheerful, practical family in a way that even she herself has never appreciated it before, and her own sober realization about how lucky she is.
-- Yeah, so, this book, along with Lloyd Alexander’s
The High King, Alan Garner’s
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, and JRR Tolkien’s
The Fellowship of the Ring are the books that taught me – before I hit my teens - all about the human body’s reactions to cold and the dangers and symptoms of freezing to death.
-- OH! I forgot about Laura going to live with the McKees one summer to help them hold down their claim. They take the train to Manchester SD. It is seven miles to the west of De Smet. We went there, too, on our trip. The ENTIRE TOWN was destroyed by a tornado in 2003. There is literally nothing left but a mangled railway sign, a memorial, and “the fabled town pump” which miraculously survived. It is officially classified as a Ghost Town.
(
Wikipedia entry about Manchester SD)
(
Yeah, video footage of THAT TORNADO by seriously insane storm spotters. This thing is HALF A MILE WIDE and they are like 100 yards away from it.)
-- Anyone born since about 1920 has SERIOUSLY MISSED OUT ON THE PLEASURES OF SLEIGH RIDING. Damn it.
Best quotation in this book:
The wind was blowing, but not too hard, and everyone was so happy and gay for it was only twenty degrees below zero and the sun shone. -
Another lovely continuation of Laura's life. I was so happy for her and Almanzo, even though I thought the courting stage was much more frigid back then, but it was a different world back then! I can't wait to see how they grow together in age and love.
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I am very bitter about the $100 organ Pa insisted Laura needed to buy for Mary to play during her visits home (for a couple of weeks every other year or something). This was the money nobody could afford to waste.
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These Happy Golden Years is book eight of the autobiographical series of novels, and we know from the first that Laura Ingalls will become Laura Ingalls Wilder so we are just waiting for that ring to appear, since we first met him a few books ago. This book spans the years from when Laura is not yet 16 and works in the Brewster School until the time she is married at 18.
“He isn’t that Wilder boy any more, Mary. He is Almanzo. . . I guess it’s because we just seem to belong together.”
This is, as with the others, a family car listen, over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house we went. I have to say I was not up for a book that announces its theme and tone in the title, but hey, the tale of the fifteen-year old Laura's first teaching experience in a shanty, 12 miles from home, was interesting to this lifelong teacher, and moments of her courtship with Almanzo Wilder had us literally laughing aloud and cheering.
Highlights:
*When Almanzo picks her up in a snowstorm, it is BELOW 40 degrees below zero, and she almost collapses from hypothermia. When they make it home Papa says the ball at the base of the thermometer actually had frozen. Later she says she is happy being outside in the sunlight when it is only twenty degrees below zero!
*Those sleigh and buggy rides with Almanzo. Can one ever hear sleigh bells the same way again?
*Laura’s informing Almanzo that she won’t be able to swear an oath to always “obey” him. He immediately agrees, but asks her if she is a feminist like his sister. “Well, not that I want the vote, or anything, but I just don’t think I can swear in advance to something I may not be able to do.”
*He takes her for rides (and then she also takes the reins eventually) for a full year, doing nothing else with her, even after she has discouraged him from approaching her for romance. (He knows she is the one, and persists). The first time he puts his arm around her, she pulls the reins and forces him to take them with two hands; he understands this move, and does not touch her again for many months later. Saint Almanzo!
*When and only when she gets the ring does she allow him to kiss her—just once—before dropping her off at her door. Saint Almanzo! Another age, another time!
*The Ingalls seeing their child of 18 leave home with Almanzo—bittersweet.
A love story, and a sweet one, to (essentially) finish the series, yay! -
These happy golden years are passing by, these happy golden years.
Arguably the most recognizable quote from the eighth book in the series and rightly so. We transition from girlhood to adulthood by having Laura slowly, but surly, fall love.
I distinctly remember that this was the first time that I mourned the loss of a character - I was in fifth grade and the book-Laura was still alive. Yet, I remember sadness and sorrow.
The Laura we knew has grown into a woman. It's no longer Ma, Pa and Laura. Gone are the days spent roasting the pig's tail and singing along to Pa's fiddle. This was the first time I had realized that I would someday leave my parents.
I sincerely wish we could've had more books for this series prior to Laura marrying Almanzo. Or even more written by Laura as her daughter grew up.
Audiobook Comments
Read by Cherry Jones and accompanied by Paul Woodiel on the fiddle - together they really brought the audio alive. Loved it.
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I think this is my favorite Laura Ingalls Wilder book. I really like Almanzo and his horses and ... it's just an amazing book. :)
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Because I sometimes and even rather often have the tendency to not really care too much for so-called and specifically courting stories, I did originally approach Laura Ingalls Wilder’s 1944 Newbery Honour winning These Happy Golden Years (being the eighth of the Little House on the Prairie novels and which I never read during my childhood, which I actually only read for the first time just recently) with a bit of personal trepidation (as I was of course more than a trifle worried that I would find the minute details of Laura Ingalls’ and Almanzo Wilder’s romance and marriage a bit dragging and textually tedious). But no, I really and fortunately, happily absolutely had no reason to worry with regard to the above. For yes indeed, Laura and Almanzo’s love story as it is related in These Happy Golden Years has not only been engagingly penned, there is also quite a bit of gentle and delightful humour and imagination present in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s printed words, with me especially adoring how Laura and Almanzo basically court each other with the latter’s, with Manly’ colts, how Laura totally manages to trounce Nellie Oleson and finally how both manage to also thwart Almanzo’s bossy and full of herself older sister Eliza trying to foist an expensive and huge wedding on them by marrying in haste and thus giving Eliza a total fait accomplit.
Combined with much other wonderful and enlightening historically accurate and authentic feeling details about Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life from when she gets her first teaching certificate until she finally ties the proverbial knot with Almanzo Wilder (such as for example Laura’s first rather daunting teaching job away from home during a very cold winter, boarding with a majorly dysfunctional family but thankfully being picked up every Friday afternoon by Almanzo so she can spend a few days relaxing and recharging at home, and yes also appreciated details about older and blind sister Mary visiting from college), These Happy Golden Years has been very much a sweet delight to read. And I actually also do tend to think of These Happy Golden Years as being the series conclusion, since in my humble opinion, the following book, The First Four Years is text and writing style wise just too different for me to consider it as part of the main narrative body of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie series. -
Such a sweet ending to sweet book and a sweet series. (Yes, I know there’s technically another one. I’ll list the reasons I’m skipping it, momentarily. :p ) It had all the things I’ve loved about this series: The Ingalls family, the setting, seeing how things were in that area during that historical time period, Almanzo, and a very sweet, innocent romance. The familial love and support of the Ingalls family for each other was especially wonderful. I shed a tear of happiness at Laura and Almanzo’s wedding, especially when Pa played all the old songs on his fiddle, and everything else, and just… gah. <3 It made me so happy.
I am truly content with this being the end of the series, which is why I currently have no intention of reading the last book, “The First Four Years”. Having researched it and read a synopsis as well as the actual historical account of Laura and Almanzo’s married life, I guess I just feel like the fact that I already know what happens, the fact that it’s a bit of a downer (in spite of still having a hopeful note to it), plus the fact that it’s less polished and questionable as to whether Laura Ingalls Wilder actually intended it to be published at all (the thing I read said she abandoned it) all works together to make me not really that interested in it. Maybe someday I’ll take a look, but honestly, I feel like I already read it, figuratively speaking, and I’m just wanting to leave things on a happy note instead of being made kind of sad. So…yeah. I think I’m just going to call “These Happy Golden Years” the end.
This has been such a wonderful series. On one hand, I almost wish I had discovered it when I was younger so I could have enjoyed it sooner. On the other hand, I’m happy I discovered it as an adult so I could truly appreciate the history and the deeper themes being presented. I’m sure that if I ever have kids, I’ll be reading these books to them and will revisit them myself many, many times.
Content advisory for those who want to know:
As the series progresses and as Laura matures, the stories matured a little with her. Parents may want to be aware of certain story elements before reading the later books to particularly young children.
In this book, while Laura is teaching at the school she stays with a married couple who are very unpleasant to be around. They argue constantly and outright seem to hate each other. The wife at one point slaps her toddler’s hands for throwing a plate once. Later, Laura wakes up one night to hear the couple arguing and sees the wife threatening her husband with a butcher knife because she thought he kicked her in his sleep. It seems that something like this may have happened before because the husband doesn’t seem too afraid and simply talks his wife down until she puts the knife away. The incident scares Laura badly, but nothing like it happens again.
Near the end of the book, one of Laura’s sisters reminds Laura to keep her bonnet on in the sun or she’ll turn “brown as an Indian”. This is an inside joke and a reference to their Ma telling them the very same thing when they were younger. -
What a lovely courtship; so simple and innocent, just two young people comfortable in each other's company. Laura comes into her own making money as a teacher and surprisingly she enjoys it. I actually had a hard time reading those parts; they reminded me so much of my first years teaching-the struggle to be firm yet fun. Always at this time of the year I yearn for those days when I decorated my classroom to some fanciful theme and watched the children's faces for their reaction.
Mary goes off to college and is quite successful. She doesn't use blindness as an excuse to give up on life. Perseverance continues to be the theme of these books. No one in the Ingalls family gets discouraged. They all realize that they make their own luck and results depend upon the work you complete.
Lots of songs in this book. Music is quite beloved to this family. I started of with Big Woods knowing all of the songs. By now I'm learning all sorts of new ones.
I can't get over how quickly one can read these books. Within several hours the pages just fly by. I always finish feeling so happy. -
THE SERIES ENDS HERE, I CAN'T HEAR YOU.
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Strap in, folks. This might be a long one, since it's my favorite book in the series.
We begin our story once again in the cold winter of the Dakota Territories. Laura has received her teaching certificate and begins teaching school to keep Mary in college. She dreads teaching, she doesn't want to leave home, but she pulls herself up by her bootstraps and puts on a brave face. The school is 12 long, cold miles from home. She's staying with the school board president's family, run by his awful wife who hates it out West. It's a long two months in the freezing cold, and the only way she stays sane is because of the wonderful Almanzo Wilder. He drives out there, regardless of the weather, and brings her home to her family. Every. Single. Weekend. Through blizzards and awkward conversations. Almanzo must have really loved her, because she is ridiculous sometimes and tells him she won't ride with him after she is back home. What? Girl, you are crazy. But he's the best, and continues to make sure she gets home safely. I have a real thing for strapping young farm boys who are good with horses and very kind and brave. Almanzo is my jam.
And then she is home, and she conveniently forgets that she wasn't going to go around with him anymore. Apparently strapping young farm boys are her jam, too. Laura, no judgment. He's rad. And he apparently gets you, big time. Secret Christmas gifts, buggy rides, and appears to be a strong partner in crime. You get to drive the horses and race across the prairie together. You break wild horses and go to singing school together. And at the end, a sweet proposal and a kiss, leading to a quick marriage. Well, I say quick, but he courted her for three patient years, so nothing quick about that, folks. I mean, she was eighteen when they got hitched. And he builds her a kick-ass pantry so you know he loves her.
I'm 99% sure my husband is Almanzo Wilder reincarnated, and this book directly shaped the kind of man I am find attractive. 5 stars. Love this series! -
Ok so how could I not put my favorite LHOTP book on my bookshelf? I can't. There just ain't better readin' than a little LHOTP. Especially with a little fiddle music in the background while wearing a bonnet.
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I think this is my favorite of all the Little House books. So many happy things happen for all of them and who doesn't love a good romance?!
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I think this might be my favorite in the series. The romance between Almanzo and Laura was so sweet! And I loved following Laura as she trained to be a teacher. Also, my heart pounded a little faster in the scene where the wife in the couple who she boards with is standing over her husband in the middle of the night with a kitchen knife. EEEESH!
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*Some possible spoilers... of course, if you looked at the cover of the book, you're probably already aware of where this is going.
Eleanor: I know what my favorite part is already: WHEN LAURA GOT MARRIED!!!
I want to give it FIVE STARS!!! You know why it's amazing? Because how can a piece of wedding cake taste like sawdust in your mouth?
Dad: Why do you think Laura thought it tasted like sawdust?
El: Because she's leaving home forever.
Dad: But why would that make it taste like sawdust?
El: Well, in the book... it said, usually mom's cake tastes good, but Laura said the cake tasted like sawdust in her mouth. So she couldn't enjoy the cake, because she had to leave. ...Talking about wedding cake makes me hungry for cake... I guess I'm going to have to wait until after dinner to get some banana bread.
Dad: Do you think the banana bread mom made is going to taste like sawdust?
El: NOOOOOooooo! I'm not going to leave home and not come back for keeps. You're silly daddy. ...Mom said not to make the review really silly. I guess I'll have to explain to her that dad made the review silly.
Dad: I guess you will. Will it taste like sawdust when you're getting married and leaving home for keeps?
El: I don't think so. I guess I'll have to find out when I get married.
Dad: What'd you think about the Brewsters?
El: They're MEEEaaaaaannnnn.
Dad: No kidding. I'm glad I didn't have to live with them.
El: I'm glad I didn't either. I'm glad I live with a mom who's a good cook! I can taste her cake already.
Dad: What did you think about Laura's school?
El: It was cool that she earned $27!
Dad: What's one thing you learned from this book? About life, or about yourself, or about anything?
El: I learned that sometimes in life you meet mean people.
Dad: Anything else?
El: You should love them anyway - like Laura loved Mrs. and Mr. Brewster.
Dad: Ok. Was Laura ever mean?
El: ...Uhhhh... I don't think so...
Dad: I think she was a couple of times.
El: When was she mean, daddy? She wasn't mean to Almanzo, that's for sure. Eh! And you know what my next favorite part was? When Nellie was afraid of horses.
Dad: So, you remember a part about Laura being mean then, huh?
El: Actually, I think it was Nellie that was being mean. Laura held her tongue, and Nellie's tongue was going flippity-flop. And Almanzo was Laura's friend, and Nellie was taking him away from her.
Dad: You make some good points. I'm not saying Nellie wasn't mean. I just think it was a little bit mean (but still kind of funny) for Laura to spook the horses when she knew Nellie was afraid of them.
El: It was kind of funny. ...Laura's a funny girl. -
I finished up my reread of this series today. It's just comforting, to read those old childhood favorites with new eyes. My heart still skips a beat when Almanzo asks Laura if he can see her home that first time! I still get scared with Laura during her first teaching job (how awful was that Mrs Brewster?!)
I chalk a lot of how good I did in certain classes in school to stories like these, and wish more kids today were still reading them.
ETA 2017: I think that, in spite of this series not being romance, that Almanzo Wilder is one of my top most romantic males. He's sweet and caring, and he lets Laura be Laura. He keeps fetching her from school, even after she tells him she's not interested, and then keeps on trying after the school thing is all done! And he lets Laura drive his crazy, half broken horses! -
Who this book is for: People who love Laura Ingalls Wilder, prairie stories, historicals, faith-filled books. 0+
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এই সিরিজের প্রতিটা বই ধারাবাহিকভাবে ভালো লেগেছে। এটাও তার ব্যতিক্রম হয়নি। সুন্দর ছিমছাম গল্প। পড়ার পরেও মনের মধ্যে আনাগোনা করতে থাকে বহুক্ষণ।
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I always like to read THIS book after reading 'The Long Winter', even if it does not keep the correct order- this just seems like the proper continuation of where 'Winter' leaves off. I like this one because it tells the story of Laura and Almanzo's courtship, beginning when she is 15 and ending with their marriage when she is 18. As a kid, it always blew my mind that they had never ever even kissed until they were ENGAGED! Hell, I was reading this at 10 or 11, and *I* had kissed boys by then! This is a more 'grown up' book compared to some of the others, dealing with finances, laws of settler's claims and things such as that. I always loved that Laura became a teacher (I had always wanted to be a teacher, and so I am) but she taught at the age of 15!! Crazy. It is a great read, and a great continuation of the series. I like it 3rd best overall, I would say, of the original 9 books. --Jen from Quebec :0)
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Such a lovely happy book. I felt quite emotional finishing it. Especially knowing sorrows that lay ahead.
I loved that Laura appreciated her happy moments at this time in her life though, and knew that they really were happy golden years. -
This may be my favorite Little House book, because it's such a beautiful little romance. Laura goes off to teach school but must board with an awful family. As her first week passes, her heart sinks at the thought of spending the weekend in that cramped, cold cabin with the angry and abusive housewife. And then she hears sleigh bells. Almonzo Wilder has come to take her home for the weekend -- and he does, every week, for the entire term, even in the midst of record-breaking cold spells.
It's a sweet little romance, in which Laura doesn't know her own feelings but when asked, says yes. It's innocent and appealing. Read it. -
I love the Little House series. Saying this book wasn't my favorite is like ranking the Harry Potter books. Even a four star here is more beloved than most other novels. That said, this book had a bit too much Mrs Brewster (sad and scary!) and too many buggy rides (redundant) for me to really relish it like I did the others. That said I think Laura does a masterful job conveying the joys and pangs of growing up and moving on from the nest. And I love what Almanzo had to say about not wanting a wife who just obeys him ;-)
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Another of my favorites out of the series! The best aspect, in my opinion, is the understated development of Laura and Almanzo's romance.
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This is so bittersweet. Laura's parents saying goodbye and watching their children leave them might be the defining emotional moments of this series for me. The last few pages have always hit me harder than I expected, and not even Almanzo's painstaking shelves and drawers quite take the sting out of that.
And then there's that earlier moment with Mrs. Brewster and the knife, and really appreciating home just before leaving it. That's always quite something.
I skimmed the next book, and it's just the disaster I remember (though I'd forgotten about the Boasts - ouch) so
like Jess, I'll pretend the series ends here. Even though I think it's a darker place to end than the previous books; even if I think "these happy golden years" are more ominous than anything else. I'm glad they're happy - I hope they're happy - and wow, they lived really difficult lives.
I should end on a positive note, I suppose, even if this book doesn't leave me feeling all that positive: Almanzo is so great in these books that they almost read like a love letter to him. It's so, so sweet. -
Reread from childhood. A great, stress-free read which is exactly what I needed. This is the most romance heavy of the series. It's all about Laura and Almanzo's relationship.
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December 2021 re-read.
Happy golden years indeed.
I really enjoyed watching Laura come in to her own as a teacher and young woman as she slowly falls in love with Almanzo. I love the way we leave them at the end of the story, together in their little gray house in the west. Such a wonderful end to Laura's adolescence and beginning of her adult life.
December 2013 re-read. -
5 stars & 5/10 hearts. I’ve read this book many times, as a preteen. I am now 18 and I’ve read it for the first time in several years. I enjoyed it a lot more than I had before. Laura was a strong woman, and I really admire her courage and perseverance. Hers & Almanzo’s courting is very sweet (only three kisses mentioned) and I enjoyed this book very much.
*review to be updated* -
I was so excited when I got to read about Almanzo and Laura being able to date and get engaged. I have never forgotten my first time reading this book as it was the first time I wanted to marry and hold out for the man of my dreams like Laura did. I'm lucky in the fact that I got my wish.
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This is my absolute favorite of the Little House series!
My review:
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