“A new two-volume edition of the Little House books from the Library of America stakes a claim for Wilder’s work as an enduring part of the country’s literary heritage—not just a journal of a frontier girlhood meant to amuse children, but skillfully crafted literature. The Little House books are a valuable eye-witness account of a fascinating and fleeting time in America’s history. They are also first-rate fiction, with gripping drama and finely drawn characters—particularly the author’s alter ego, Laura Ingalls, who thrives on the edge of civilization and is ambivalent about settling down into adulthood. Wilder’s straightforward, plainspoken style, with its occasional bursts of lyricism, has aged well—though she is speaking about the past, she seldom seems to be speaking from the past.”—Commonweal