DK Biography: Laura Ingalls Wilder

DK Biography

by D.K. Publishing

Filled with archival photographs and amazing fact boxes, DK Biography is a groundbreaking series that introduces young readers to some of history's most interesting and influential characters. DK Laura Ingalls Wilder pays tribute to the author of the beloved Little House on the Prairie series and the exciting pioneer childhood that was the inspiration for her books. Supports the Common Core State Standards.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Middle Grade, History

128 pages, Hardcover

First published March 2, 2009

About the author

Dorling Kindersley (DK) is a British multinational publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 62 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a consumer publishing company jointly owned by Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and Pearson PLC. Bertelsmann owns 53% of the company and Pearson owns 47%.

Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Patricia King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laura Ingalls Wilder
A biography
Tanya Lee Stone, author

Geared toward the young student, this book is filled with beautiful pictures from Ms. Wilder's childhood and throughout her adult life. It provides a knowledgeable accounting of how she became an author, not to mention a wonderful depiction of her fictional novels, as they were based on her life experiences. I highly recommend this book to young readers who are interested in finding out how Ms. Wilder came to be an inspiring children's book author.

[Rosa Cline · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this Biography of Laura Wilder. It was very easy to read and had descriptive things along with easy to follow 'time lines' of when things happened with Laura in her lifetime. They didn't leave anything out and throughout this book are lots of photos of Laura and her families; also various other photos of 'what it would have looked like' or newspaper articles or even photos of letters when Laura got her teaching certificate and when Pa got his homestead etc. I really enjoyed reading this book.

And as far as the DK Biography books I'm looking forward to reading more of them on various people. They are wonderful Biographies!

[Jenny T · Rating 3 out of 5]

This colorful biography features plenty of family and place photos. I think that the real Laura looks similar to Melissa Gilbert's portrayal of Laura in the Little House TV series. I was surprised to learn that the LH books are works of fiction, based on real events. As it turns out, Laura wasn't interested in Almanzo romantically, but was heartbroken when he died because she grew very attached to him. Laura had a rocky relationship with her daughter, Rose. It seems many of the male infants in the Ingalls and Wilder families didn't survive. Rose had no children of her own and was divorced. Her heir was a "neighbor boy."

[Jill Loach · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across this biography by chance in a charity shop and found it a real page-turner. I'm ashamed to say Laura Ingalls Wilder and her books had passed me by, but I found the account of the courage, initiative and resourcefulness of those initial settlers uplifting and thought provoking. I was delighted to find that my daughter had the box set of all nine of the Little House Series and these, together with a CD of tunes mentioned in the book on Pa Ingalls fiddle, given to me a few years ago, is feeding my current LIW obsession!!

[Maya Geissinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grade Level 3rd- 5th Genre: Biography
This book is very good and informative, especially if you have read the "Little House" series. It clears up some facts about the stories in this series and gives the facts. The pictures show a reality that most kids have never seen. The covered wagons and the cabins they lived in, shown in pictures help tell the story.

[Valerie McEnroe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Complete details of Laura Ingalls Wilder's life. Despite her books being fiction, they are very close to her real life. I enjoyed this biography. Lots of pictures. There's also a lot about her daughter Rose. Can't go wrong with DK publishing.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

NF- Biography

[Jessica Rawden · Rating 2 out of 5]

The DK Biography series is really cool--the pages are laid out in a website format, with pictures and historical artifacts on each page to supplement the words. With the Laura Ingalls Wilder biography, the first thing author Tanya Lee Stone made sure to point out was that the Little House On The Prairie Series is a fictional account of Wilder's life. I think many people, especially younger children, are of the presupposition that Wilder's accounts are entirely true. The book was informative and would be a great read for someone wanting to know basic facts about Wilder's life. I would hasten to add; however, that there is bias in this biography. I know that most biographies often spin the life of people in a certain way, but I disdain when they give Peter Pan-esque narrator asides. Overall, a good overview, but I feel like an Internet source with links could be a better guide to learning the amount of information the DK book gives. Or, a larger biography would give more detailed information. Not a bad read and probably deserving of 2 1/2 stars, but not a great read either.
For ages eight and up, although has enough pictures and is decently short on information, so could be read to pre-readers.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading level is roughly 3rd grade through 8th grade. This is the story of Laura Ingalls Wilder, her husband Almanzo, and her daughter Rose. It is a true account of her life, filled with facts. Her life stories are what she drew from to create the factionalized children's book series. Here is the series in the order that she wrote the books:

1932 Little House in the Big Woods
1933 Farmer Boy (stands alone as Almanzo's life story)
1935 Little House on the Prairie
1937 On the Banks of Plum Creek
1939 By the Shores of Silver Lake
1940 The Long Winter
1941 Little Town on the Prairie
1943 These Happy Golden Years
194? On the Way Home
1971 The First Four Years (posthumously from diaries and rough drafts)
1974 West From Home (posthumously from diaries and notes)

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading aloud to Max. We've read up through The Long Winter in her Little House Series and this biography is helping to tell us her real story. I'm a little disappointed learning that some of the Little House series was fictionalized; I grew up with the books and had them sealed in my brain as fact more or less! Romanticizing history is something I'm good at.

The biography helps to paint a more realistic picture and is a very good piece of material for an author study on Ms. Wilder.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really nice biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder written for younger readers; it's a chapter book, but includes many pictures of the Ingalls family, period pictures of the towns in which they lived, and other period pictures of pioneers, etc. It is a great supplement to the "Little House" book series, giving readers an insight into Mrs. Wilder's real life, which is every bit as interesting as the fictional Laura's life.

[Kailyn Groves · Rating 4 out of 5]

The biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder gives lots of information about life "back in the day". She tells of her experiences growing up as a farm girl and becoming a writer. I would encourage you to read it if you want to learn more about her, or if you just want to read about life in the early 1900s.

[The Sassy Bookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read, full of facts and photos. It is a pretty small book, so really only took me less then an hour to read, but I came away knowing more about Laura Ingalls Wilder, so it served it's purpose!

[Karen Arendt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned so much about Laura Ingalls Wilder from reading this book! What an interesting life! I always wondered how the stories came about. I am going to place this book in the school library. I also love the DK Biography series!

[Heather Cluskey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though this biography was short, and contained a lot of information I already had learned elsewhere, the addition of so many pictures made it worth buying and reading. I think its probably aimed more at young adults who want to learn more about the author behind the Little House series

[Diana Simpson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan, and picked up this book when I happened upon it even though it was written for children. I learned a lot of things about Wilder's life that I never knew, and found this book to be a very interesting biography.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of interesting facts of Ms. Wilder's life. Describes how her life intersects (and doesn't) with the fictional series. Great children's reading to accompany the Little House readings.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting, just because of the differences between the books and real life. And now, the next family vacation will be in Missouri to go to the house where the books were written. :)

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a quick and simple read, but very interesting from a historical perspective. I love books like this, that take us back into the normal lives of those in the past.

[Mat Kramer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice back story for the Little House books

[Stacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very insightful

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a children's biography I thought this was well done and informative. I especially loved all of the pictures!

[Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This really helped me with a project/paper in grade school. This ws very informational

[Tamra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A youth's version of a Laura Ingalls Wilder biography with little - if any - new information for fans of the beloved children's author. Still fun to read.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

ok, this is a kid's book, but I read all her books growing up. was nice to learn more about her life.

[carissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended Ages: Grades 4 and up

[Lois · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tanya Stone's clear writing reveals information about Laura and her family and the ongoing times in this biography for middle graders. The 128-page book with fifteen chapters and a helpful map contains an Introduction explaining how the Newbery Honor author based her Little House stories (and the Little House on the Prairie television series did the same) on her life but added touches of fiction. Stone includes an illustrated Timeline, a Bibliography with books published by university presses, a wonderful For Further Study section listing museums and historical sites, Works Cited, Acknowledgments, Index, and Picture Credits. I especially enjoyed the sidebars illustrated with portions of photos, some in color, and highly recommend Tanya Stone's inspiring tale about a beloved American children's author.