For Those Too Little for Little House, There's Christmas in the Big Woods

Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books have been enjoyed by children and adults alike for decades. While her original novels continue to be popular, some have discovered this plucky youngster and her pioneering family through adaptations. Not only have there been films and, of course, the long-running TV series, but there have also been simplified versions of the books published for an especially young audience. One such abridgement is My First Little House Books: Christmas in the Big Woods.

Taken from Christmas, the fourth chapter in Little House in the Big Woods, this story describes the Christmas that Laura and her family spend in their log cabin in Wisconsin. Though they are fairly isolated most of the time, the holiday brings company that fills the house with merriment. With four adults and six children under one roof, they set about making their Christmas as joyful as possible with their limited resources.

One of the nicest things about this simple story is the way it emphasizes the excitement Laura and the other children feel over the meager gifts they receive. Each child gets a peppermint stick and a new pair of mittens, and that is enough to make them “so happy they could hardly speak.” Whether it’s homemade candy or pancake people prepared by Ma Ingalls, the children savor each good thing they are given, knowing that such treats are scarce.

The chapter in the book is about 20 pages long, whereas this book contains only 14 paragraphs printed over illustrations covering two pages. Thus, most of the dialogue is lost, along with some of the more detailed descriptions of items, such as the doll Laura receives. In the novel, half a page is devoted to her physical appearance, but the picture book whittles it down to just “a beautiful rag doll with black button eyes and a pink-and-blue calico dress.” Then again, we get to see the doll, dubbed Charlotte by Laura, in full color on several pages, so to some extent the illustrations speak for themselves.

Renee Graef makes a great effort to keep her work consistent with that of original illustrator Garth Williams, and some of her spreads are clearly inspired by specific pictures in Little House in the Big Woods. There’s the girls making molasses candy with their mother, playing in the snow and trying to get to sleep on Christmas Eve. My favorite picture in the chapter, of most of the extended family snuggled together, is stretched out in Graef’s imagination in order to make it fit two pages. I prefer the intimacy of Williams’ drawing, in which both dads are receiving hugs from one of their daughters, but I like the way Graef incorporates every member of the family, even the dog Jack.

Additionally, despite the trimming, several bits of writing are lifted directly from Wilder. For instance, both the book and the chapter end the same way: “Christmas was over. But what a happy Christmas it had been!” Ending on this appreciative note again emphasizes the importance of being grateful for one’s blessings, and keeping so much of the language similar ensures that Wilder’s writing will feel familiar when, hopefully, the children who read Christmas in the Big Woods decide to move on to the novels.