Little House on the Prairie

LHOTP is where it gets better, actually - and perhaps why the TV show was named after this one. The Ingalls family decides the woods are getting too crowded for Pa's profession as a trapper, so they move out to the Prairie. The descriptions of the prairie, as a wholly alien place, are kind of delightful, and we start to see some real character development in the family, and a the moral development of Laura - she starts to feel like a real person.

There's also the background radiation of the Indians - the Ingalls after all are moving to Indian Territory, but the author really deftly keeps the viewpoint of her past self. Young Laura has only a vague awareness of other people on the land, which slowly comes to a head as they meet and then have real conflict with the Indians. This was also, of course, necessitated a lot of explaining and background history for the kids, which was great.

Noted on November 13, 2016