Farmer Boy facts for kids
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Front dust jacket with Sewell's illustration
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| Author | Laura Ingalls Wilder |
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| Illustrator | Helen Sewell Garth Williams (1953) |
| Country | United States |
| Series | Little House |
| Genre | Children's novel, farm life |
| Publisher | Harper & Brothers |
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Publication date
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October 1, 1933 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 230; 371 pp. |
| OCLC | 15872400 |
| LC Class | PZ7.W6461 Far |
| Preceded by | Little House in the Big Woods |
| Followed by | On the Banks of Plum Creek |
Farmer Boy is a children's historical novel written by Laura Ingalls Wilder and published in 1933. It was the second-published one in the Little House series but it is not related to the first, which that of the third directly continues. Thus the later Little House on the Prairie is sometimes called the second one in the series, or the second volume of "the Laura Years".
Plot summary
The novel is based on the childhood of Wilder's husband, Almanzo Wilder, who grew up in the 1860s near the town of Malone, New York. It covers roughly one year of his life, beginning just before his ninth birthday and describes a full year of farming. It describes in detail the endless chores involved in running the Wilder family farm, all without powered vehicles or electricity. Young as he is, Almanzo rises before 5 am every day to milk cows and feed stock. In the growing season, he plants and tends crops; in winter, he hauls logs, helps fill the ice house, trains a team of young oxen, and sometimes — when his father can spare him — goes to school. The novel includes stories of his brother, Royal, and sisters, Eliza Jane and Alice.
Historical background
Since Almanzo (1857–1949) was born in February 1857, the novel is set in 1866–1867, before Laura's birth (1867–1957). It features Almanzo's brother, Royal (1847–1925), and sisters, Eliza Jane (1850–1930) and Alice (1853–1892). Meanwhile, he also had a sister named Laura (1844–1899), who at the time and events in the novel was already about 22 and had presumably moved out. He later had a brother named Perley Day (1869–1934), who was not yet born at the time the novel is set.
