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Did you ever wonder what it was like to grow up in a small wooden house on the prairie,

with no electricity, no cars, and snow as high as the roof? That was the life of Laura Ingalls

Wilder. She lived more than 100 years ago and wrote books about her childhood that have been

loved by readers ever since.

Her stories help us understand what life was like for American pioneer families in the 1800s.

Laura Ingalls Wilder was born on February 7, 1867, in a little log cabin in the woods of Wisconsin. Her family was poor, but they worked hard and stayed close.

Her father, Charles Engels, loved music and could play the fiddle. Her mother, Caroline, was gentle and taught Laura and her sisters to read, sew, and keep house.

Laura had three sisters, Mary, Carrie, and Grace. When Laura was still a young girl,

her family moved many times. They were part of the wave of settlers moving west across the

United States. At that time, much of the land was open prairie, with few roads or towns. Families

like the Ingalls moved west to find better farmland and a chance to build

a new life. Laura's family lived in Wisconsin, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota over the years.

Every time they moved, they had to start over, build a new house, plant crops, and make new friends.

Life on the prairie was not easy. In her books, Laura wrote about long winters with blizzards,

summers with grasshopper plagues, and times when there wasn't enough food. One of the hardest

winters was in 1880 to 1881 in Desmet, South Dakota. Snowstorms came early and kept coming, blocking

trains and cutting off supplies. The Ingalls family and their neighbors had to twist hay into

...