# List of Little House on the Prairie books
The *Little House* series is a set of nine semi-autobiographical children's novels by [Laura Ingalls Wilder](https://www.edgepedia.org/laura-ingalls-wilder), published by Harper & Brothers between 1932 and 1943, with a ninth book issued posthumously in 1971.[1](https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/100959-authors-weigh-in-on-wilder-s-little-house-then-and-now.html) • [2](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/books/little-house-on-the-prairie-books-in-order-guide/) The books follow the Ingalls family, and later Laura's marriage to [Almanzo Wilder](https://www.edgepedia.org/almanzo-wilder), through the American Midwest in the late 1800s, and have sold more than 73 million copies worldwide.[1](https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/100959-authors-weigh-in-on-wilder-s-little-house-then-and-now.html)
| # | Title | Publication | Setting and subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | *Little House in the Big Woods* | 1932[3](https://www.loa.org/books/367-the-little-house-books-volume-1/) | Five-year-old Laura in a log cabin in the Wisconsin wilderness; a year of chores, seasons, and Pa's fiddle[2](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/books/little-house-on-the-prairie-books-in-order-guide/) • [3](https://www.loa.org/books/367-the-little-house-books-volume-1/) |
| 2 | *Farmer Boy* | 1933[3](https://www.loa.org/books/367-the-little-house-books-volume-1/) | A detour from Laura's story to her husband Almanzo Wilder's boyhood on an upstate New York farm in the 1860s[2](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/books/little-house-on-the-prairie-books-in-order-guide/) • [3](https://www.loa.org/books/367-the-little-house-books-volume-1/) |
| 3 | *Little House on the Prairie* | 1935[3](https://www.loa.org/books/367-the-little-house-books-volume-1/) | The family moves from Wisconsin to Kansas, staking a claim on Osage land amid illness, prairie fires, and conflict, before accepting they settled illegally and moving on[2](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/books/little-house-on-the-prairie-books-in-order-guide/) • [3](https://www.loa.org/books/367-the-little-house-books-volume-1/) |
| 4 | *On the Banks of Plum Creek* | 1937[3](https://www.loa.org/books/367-the-little-house-books-volume-1/) | The family moves to Minnesota and loses a promising wheat crop to grasshoppers[3](https://www.loa.org/books/367-the-little-house-books-volume-1/) |
| 5 | *By the Shores of Silver Lake* | 1930s–40s run[2](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/books/little-house-on-the-prairie-books-in-order-guide/) | Continues Laura's girlhood as the family moves on toward the Dakota towns[2](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/books/little-house-on-the-prairie-books-in-order-guide/) |
| 6 | *The Long Winter* | 1930s–40s run[2](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/books/little-house-on-the-prairie-books-in-order-guide/) | The blizzard winter Laura's family endures before the upswing of the following books[2](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/books/little-house-on-the-prairie-books-in-order-guide/) |
| 7 | *Little Town on the Prairie* | 1930s–40s run[2](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/books/little-house-on-the-prairie-books-in-order-guide/) | Laura's teenage years in town: socials, school, work toward a teaching certificate, and contributions to Mary's tuition at a college for the blind in Iowa[2](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/books/little-house-on-the-prairie-books-in-order-guide/) |
| 8 | *These Happy Golden Years* | 1943[4](https://laurasprairiehouse.com/faq/when-did-laura-ingalls-wilder-write-her-books/) | Originally the final book; Laura's late teens, teaching at a nearby school, and her courtship and marriage to Almanzo[2](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/books/little-house-on-the-prairie-books-in-order-guide/) |
| 9 | *The First Four Years* | 1971, posthumously[2](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/books/little-house-on-the-prairie-books-in-order-guide/) | The first years of Laura's marriage to Almanzo, from illness and fires to tragic deaths[2](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/books/little-house-on-the-prairie-books-in-order-guide/) |
## Publication history
Wilder began writing about her frontier childhood in 1930, at the age of sixty-three.[3](https://www.loa.org/books/367-the-little-house-books-volume-1/) That first manuscript, the memoir later published as *Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography*, was rejected by publishers; her daughter [Rose Wilder Lane](https://www.edgepedia.org/rose-wilder-lane), a professional writer, excerpted some of the material into a draft picture book, and Wilder rewrote portions and sold *Little House in the Big Woods* as a children's book.[5](https://hoover.blogs.archives.gov/2026/07/28/fact-versus-truth-laura-ingalls-wilder-and-the-little-house-books/) • [6](https://www.wildercompanion.com/2018/05/list-of-little-house-books.html) Scholars place the writing of the eight books Wilder completed within a dozen-year span from 1930 to 1942.[7](https://www.sdhspress.com/journal/south-dakota-history-13-4/the-literary-apprenticeship-of-laura-ingalls-wilder/vol-13-no-4-the-literary-apprenticeship-of-laura-ingalls-wilder.pdf) She continued publishing through *These Happy Golden Years* in 1943, just over ten years after the first book appeared.[4](https://laurasprairiehouse.com/faq/when-did-laura-ingalls-wilder-write-her-books/)
**The ninth book** came from a different route. More than a decade after Wilder's death in 1957, her daughter Rose's designated heir, Roger MacBride, discovered a first draft of *The First Four Years* among Rose's belongings and published it as-is in 1971.[2](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/books/little-house-on-the-prairie-books-in-order-guide/) [Library of America](https://www.edgepedia.org/library-of-america) presents all nine books in publication order across two volumes, describing the series as a classic of children's literature and a firsthand account of the pioneer experience.[3](https://www.loa.org/books/367-the-little-house-books-volume-1/)
## Reading order
The books can be read in publication order, which follows the development of Wilder's storytelling voice, or chronologically by Laura's life.[8](https://laurasprairiehouse.com/faq/what-order-little-house-books-by-laura-ingalls-wilder/) *Farmer Boy* sits second in publication order but concerns Almanzo's childhood rather than Laura's, so readers sometimes place it elsewhere in the sequence.[2](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/books/little-house-on-the-prairie-books-in-order-guide/)
Two additional books are not part of the main nine-book series but are often read as companion pieces: *On the Way Home* (1962), Wilder's account of her family's 1894 move from [South Dakota](https://www.edgepedia.org/south-dakota) to Missouri, and *West from Home* (1974), letters she wrote to her husband during a 1915 visit to Rose in San Francisco.[8](https://laurasprairiehouse.com/faq/what-order-little-house-books-by-laura-ingalls-wilder/) • [2](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/books/little-house-on-the-prairie-books-in-order-guide/) These were combined into *A Little House Traveler* in 2006, along with *The Road Back*, a previously unpublished diary Wilder kept while returning to South Dakota in the 1930s to gather material for the series.[2](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/books/little-house-on-the-prairie-books-in-order-guide/)
## Spin-off series and adaptations
Several authors have expanded the Little House universe. Roger MacBride published eight books in the 1990s about Rose Wilder Lane's life, known as "The Rose Years." Melissa Wiley wrote two four-book series, "The Martha Years" about Laura's great-grandmother and "The Charlotte Years" about her grandmother. "The Caroline Years," seven novels about Laura's mother, were written by Maria D. Wilkes (the first four) and Celia Wilkins (the final three).[2](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/books/little-house-on-the-prairie-books-in-order-guide/) [HarperCollins](https://www.edgepedia.org/harpercollins) has also issued *My First Little House* picture books and beginning chapter books, distilled versions of the original novels for younger readers.[9](https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/ws/send_file/send?accession=oberlin1335871116&disposition=inline)
The books have been adapted repeatedly: an NBC television series airing from 1974, an ABC miniseries in the early 2000s, a 2008 stage musical, and a Netflix series that debuted on July 9, 2026.[2](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/books/little-house-on-the-prairie-books-in-order-guide/) The series' portrayals of Native Americans have drawn sustained criticism; in 2018 the [American Library Association](https://www.edgepedia.org/american-library-association) renamed its Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for lifetime achievement the [Children's Literature Legacy Award](https://www.edgepedia.org/childrens-literature-legacy-award) because of the dated cultural attitudes in Wilder's work.[1](https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/100959-authors-weigh-in-on-wilder-s-little-house-then-and-now.html)
## References
1. [Authors Weigh In on Wilder's 'Little House'—Then and Now, Publishers Weekly](https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/100959-authors-weigh-in-on-wilder-s-little-house-then-and-now.html)
2. [A Guide to the 'Little House on the Prairie' Books, Marie Claire](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/books/little-house-on-the-prairie-books-in-order-guide/)
3. [The Little House Books, Volume 1, Library of America](https://www.loa.org/books/367-the-little-house-books-volume-1/)
4. [When did Laura Ingalls Wilder write her Little House books?, Laura Ingalls Wilder & Little House Books](https://laurasprairiehouse.com/faq/when-did-laura-ingalls-wilder-write-her-books/)
5. [Fact versus Truth – Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Little House books, Hoover Heads](https://hoover.blogs.archives.gov/2026/07/28/fact-versus-truth-laura-ingalls-wilder-and-the-little-house-books/)
6. [List of Little House Books, The Laura Ingalls Wilder Companion](https://www.wildercompanion.com/2018/05/list-of-little-house-books.html)
7. [The Literary Apprenticeship of Laura Ingalls Wilder, South Dakota History](https://www.sdhspress.com/journal/south-dakota-history-13-4/the-literary-apprenticeship-of-laura-ingalls-wilder/vol-13-no-4-the-literary-apprenticeship-of-laura-ingalls-wilder.pdf)
8. [What Order Should You Read the Little House Books?, Laura Ingalls Wilder & Little House Books](https://laurasprairiehouse.com/faq/what-order-little-house-books-by-laura-ingalls-wilder/)
9. [Distilled Little House editions for younger readers, OhioLINK ETD](https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/ws/send_file/send?accession=oberlin1335871116&disposition=inline)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Literature and written works › Creative written works and worlds › Genre fiction categories › Audience, identity, and theme fiction › Children's fiction › Children's novels and series*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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