Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder (published 1933) was the author’s second historical fiction children’s novel. As with her first (Little House in the Big Woods; see review), Wilder has written a concise book detailing the daily life and experiences of a child in 1800s America. It differs from all the rest of Wilder’s book as it deals exclusively with young Almanzo Wilder’s experiences on a farm in rural New York State, thus providing a different type of “pioneer” story for a young child to enjoy. Boys and girls alike would like Almanzo’s sometimes funny experiences.
Almanzo has a somewhat privileged childhood. (Honestly, since my daughter and I listened to the audiobook immediately after finishing The Long Winter (see review), we both were marveling over the food and comfort Almanzo enjoyed.) In this book, we learn about crop farming, raising and training oxen and horses, shearing sheep, and raising pigs, as well as learning a little bit about the girl’s tasks of making wool fabric and sewing all clothes, cooking meals, making butter, and so forth.
Farmer Boy covers Almanzo’s nine-year-old year. He rarely attends school (which he dislikes since it is boring and indoors) but rather finds every excuse to help on the farm. His dream is to own and train a colt of his own, which he can only do once he has proved his own responsibility and seriousness. Almanzo has a series of funny events but he also shows maturity as he learns to make decisions, such as investing in a baby pig to raise instead of buying lemonade and solving the problem of his young oxen being driven off the road into the snow during logging time, a task that required patience and determination to solve.
The humorous bits were plentiful. My favorite chapter was the one in which the four Wilder children (of whom Almanzo is youngest) are left alone for a week when parents go on visit to family. Almost immediately we find out that they are not going to be very responsible. They raid the icehouse and the eggs and cream in order make ice cream, which they do every day of the week. Not only that, but each batch needs sugar, despite the fact that their mother’s last words were “Don’t eat all the sugar!” Lazing about makes things difficult on the last day when they all realize that they have a week of house chores to do before the parents return! Their response to their mother, who soon finds only a tiny bit of sugar left in the jar, is “Well, we didn’t eat all the sugar!”
Farmer Boy is a satisfying addition to the “Little House” series. Almanzo’s growing up story arc is very satisfying, and I enjoyed the glimpse into this boy’s character development. I highly recommend Farmer Boy.
