Kate in Arabia Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 Did your boys like Little House on the Prairie? Was there something else you used that your boys liked better? A lot of the "prairie" books I'm seeing seem targeted towards and/or about girls... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ibbygirl Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 My daughter and I are reading "Big Red" right now. I can see a boy really liking that one. Maybe the Hardy Boys too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kate in Arabia Posted May 29, 2009 Author Share Posted May 29, 2009 Ooh, thanks so much I had forgotten about Jim Kjelgaard's books! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ibbygirl Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 Ooh, thanks so much I had forgotten about Jim Kjelgaard's books! My pleasure. :) We are enjoying the book very much, but I could see how a boy would be all over it. A young man who can track and has his own gun and a great dog? What's not for a boy to love?? ;) :D As an aside I have to say though that I was surprised at how intelligent the dog is in the book. My Aunt had 3 Irish Setters when I was growing up and she always said they were the dumbest dogs ever! hehehe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kate in Arabia Posted May 29, 2009 Author Share Posted May 29, 2009 One of my good friends in highschool had a young irish setter and all I remember is that it was very hyper and jumpy.. but that may just be a young-dog phenomenon and not peculiar to a given breed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Virginia Dawn Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 My boys (10 and 5) Love, Love, Love the Litttle House Books! We are reading through them right now and are in On The Shores of Silver Lakes. Every day they beg me to read 4-5 chapters. They love the descriptions of Pa and his adventures, Laura and her scrapes, and the old fashioned way of eating and living. We started with Farmer Boy, then moved on to the ones with Laura. The only story they may not care for is the last one when Laura and Almonzo are courting. My oldest son loved them too when he was young and read them all the way through. He did say he found the last one boring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kate in Arabia Posted May 29, 2009 Author Share Posted May 29, 2009 Thanks Virginia.. maybe we'll try the first one. Sometimes I find this really hard, because I really have to try and predict what's going to go over well and what isn't -- it's expensive to get books later and would be very awkward/costly to return. Do I buy one? More? The whole series? What if I buy them all and they hate even the first one? What if I buy the first and they really like it and want them all? Maybe I should look into trying to beef up the children's library here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 We didn't read the Little House books, but ds loved "Caddie Woodlawn". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFSinIL Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 My boy enjoyed Farmer Boy.....but the "boy series" is the Little Britches series by Ralph Moody. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 My boys loved the Little House books! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marie in Oh Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 That is still one of my ds's favorite books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowWhite Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 Joshua hates "girly" books but he loved Little House in the Big Woods. Laura is a tomboy and the books are not about feelings/emotions in the way the girly books he hates can be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kate in Arabia Posted May 29, 2009 Author Share Posted May 29, 2009 Thanks for the additional suggestions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oak Knoll Mom Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 My boys love The Little House books. Some of our favorite read aloud books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KellyinPA Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 My boys (7) loved the little house books too. Farmer Boy especially made an impression on them with the obvious differences in how much work Almonzo and his brother and sisters did compared to how much they do;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firefly Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 Why wouldn't Little House be for boys? Just because the main character is a girl? My DS (11) loved the Little House books; he appreciates a strong and likable lead character, regardless of the gender... :confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mama2cntrykids Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 My boy's don't enjoy them at.all. Then again, my oldest ds is into more fantasy type writting. He likes books about Harry Potter, Spiderwick, and Dragons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jami Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 My 8 year old is less likely to admit loving them because the main character is a girl, but he does. :) We read Little House on the Prairie together and he read Silver Lake and Plum Creek on his own this past year. He's also enjoyed Secret Garden and Little Princess. A well-told story will draw most children in I think regardless of gender. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathmom Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 My oldest son liked Little House. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orangearrow Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 We just finished a year of a Prairie PRimer co-op and we had one boy in the group. He seemed to like the series as much as anyone else. One of the moms had a good point that Pa is actually a HUUUUGE part of the series (especially the earlier books) and he does all kinds of many things that a boy would be interested in. And, of course, Laura is not a frilly, prissy girlie-girl, which also helps. She helps with the animals and gets in all kinds of tomboyish scrapes. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lakeside Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 My son loves the Little House Books. I started reading them to him several years ago when we were participating in a farm program that showed life on a working farm around the turn of the century. I've read them to him several times, we've listened to the audio version of them, and he has read through the series by himself once and just reread Farmer Boy. He also really enjoyed Caddie Woodlawn. That was also a read aloud first, that he went on to read himself. There is a sequel called Magical Melons that we're having trouble finding, but has more stories of the Woodlawn family. I agree with the previous posters, that just because the main character is a girl, doesn't mean that the story is "girly" or automatically unappealing to boys. Good luck! It must be difficult to decide which books to purchase without seeing them ahead of time when it is so expensive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cornflower Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 My son loved these books. You don't want him to miss these. We love Farmer Boy and the rest of the series. You could even get them on cd from your library. Cornflower Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beach Mom Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 My DS (7) read LH in The Big Woods, and Little House on the Prairie this year and really enjoyed both of them. Indians, hunting, the digging of a well, wolves all intrigued him. I was only planning to do Big Woods, but he insisted on reading LH on the Prairie too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in IN Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 My almost 8 year old son LOVED them. We read the whole series over the last few months. He actually asked if we could start reading the "Rose" series next. In case you don't know, that series is about Laura's daughter. I think you said you were going to try the first one, and I have a suggestion for you. I think the first one is not one of the best, I would encourage you to read the first few. They get better as they go(with the exception of the last one, which was not really finished by Laura Ingalls Wilder) and you certainly get more invested in the characters. I hope you and your son enjoy them. Beth:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah CB Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 Did your boys like Little House on the Prairie? Was there something else you used that your boys liked better? A lot of the "prairie" books I'm seeing seem targeted towards and/or about girls... My boys *love* Little House on the Prairie. We've read Little House in the Big Woods and just finished up Little House on the Prairie together. They're 7 and 9 and can't wait to start the next book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cricket Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 My 11 yo ds likes the Little House books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Margaret in GA Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 Farmer Boy is one of *my* favorite books of all time. And both my boys (and my dd) loved it. Start there. We recently read aloud These Happy Golden Years (the one about Almanzo and Laura courting) when we had a snow day with no electric. We were all enthralled (me, dh, dd 15, ds 12, ds 9) These are great books. Don't miss them! ;) Margaret Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in IN Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 Farmer Boy is one of *my* favorite books of all time. And both my boys (and my dd) loved it. Start there. We recently read aloud These Happy Golden Years (the one about Almanzo and Laura courting) when we had a snow day with no electric. We were all enthralled (me, dh, dd 15, ds 12, ds 9) These are great books. Don't miss them! ;) Margaret Margaret, I LOVE Farmer Boy too! I wept at the end:blush: Beth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybear Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 My older ds (about6-7 at the time) loved the books. We didn't finish the series but did read most of them. Younger ds started enjoying them last year (around age 5-6). I thought Farmer Boy would be the big hit and while I think it may have been for my older ds, not so for younger ds. He love Little House in the Big Woods and then we only got half way through the second book. I'm thinking just now maybe we should go back to these. Thanks for the reminder. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teamturner Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 We read Little House on the Prarie as a read-aloud. After that one of my ds read Farmer Boy and really liked it. He asked me to check out Little House in the Big Woods for him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kate in Arabia Posted May 29, 2009 Author Share Posted May 29, 2009 Wow, thanks to everyone for chiming in. I'm ordering the set, hopefully it'll fit in my luggage coming back. I figure at least one out of my three kids should like them, and if not I can sell them to somebody here... Thanks again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ibbygirl Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 Wow, thanks to everyone for chiming in. I'm ordering the set, hopefully it'll fit in my luggage coming back. I figure at least one out of my three kids should like them, and if not I can sell them to somebody here... Thanks again! Not to throw in a monkey wrench but Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow might be nice for a boy too. :) I agree with everyone else about the Little House series. They're wonderful books. I couldn't put them down when I started reading them with my dd. I stayed up late at night reading ahead so she wouldn't see me. hehe I just HAD to know what happened next. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinder Posted May 31, 2009 Share Posted May 31, 2009 Haven't read all the replies but my ds's loved Little House at about the same ages as your ds's. We did them as read-alouds. Their least fave was Little House on the Prairie. The thought it was a bit slow. We didn't read The First Four Years. The audiobook versions are wonderful! They also loved Caddie Woodlawn. Cinder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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