Newbery Medal (John Newbery Medal)
On the Banks of Plum Creek: A Newbery Honor Award Winner (Little House, 4)
One of the Little House novels, this book follows the Ingalls family as they settle near Plum Creek and grow through the demands of frontier life. Its strong sense of daily labor and family memory gives the book its enduring appeal.
Work Information
A frontier family is portrayed through life along Plum Creek.
On the Banks of Plum Creek tells the story of the Ingalls family's efforts to put down roots along Plum Creek in Minnesota. Through moving, weathering hardship, and building a home, the book quietly accumulates family bonds and a child's growth.
Review Summaries
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Readers often praise the way family routine and natural hardship fit together. Within the series, it stands out for its strong sense of lived-in daily life and its calm narrative voice.
Book Information
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- 1994-01-07
- Pages
- 352 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 13.11 x 2.06 x 19.38 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780064400046
- ISBN-10
- 0064400042
- Price
- 2460 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Children's Books/Literature & Fiction/Historical Fiction/United States/1800s
Based on the real-life adventures of Laura Ingalls Wilder, On the Banks of Plum Creek is the Newbery Honor-winning fourth book in the Little House series, which has captivated generations of readers. This edition features the classic black-and-white artwork from Garth Williams. The adventures of Laura Ingalls and her family continue as they leave their little house on the prairie and travel in their covered wagon to Minnesota. They settle into a house made of sod on the banks of beautiful Plum Creek. Soon Pa builds them a sturdier house, with real glass windows and a hinged door. Laura and Mary go to school, help with the chores around the house, and fish in the creek. Pa’s fiddle lulls them all to sleep at the end of the day. But then disaster strikes—on top of a terrible blizzard, a grasshopper infestation devours their wheat crop. Now the family must work harder than ever to overcome these challenges. The nine books in the timeless Little House series tell the story of Laura’s real childhood as an American pioneer, and are cherished by readers of all generations. They offer a unique glimpse into life on the American frontier, and tell the heartwarming, unforgettable story of a loving family sticking together through thick and thin.
Laura Ingalls Wilder was born in 1867 in the log cabin described in Little House in the Big Woods , and she and her family traveled by covered wagon across the Midwest. As an adult she wrote down the stories of her pioneer childhood in her classic Little House books, which have been cherished by millions of readers ever since they were first published over ninety years ago. Garth Williams is the renowned illustrator of almost one hundred books for children, including the beloved Stuart Little by E. B. White, Bedtime for Frances by Russell Hoban, and the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. He was born in 1912 in New York City but raised in England. He founded an art school near London and served with the British Red Cross Civilian Defense during World War II. Williams worked as a portrait sculptor, art director, and magazine artist before doing his first book Stuart Little , thus beginning a long and lustrous career illustrating some of the best known children's books. In addition to illustrating works by White and Wilder, he also illustrated George Selden’s The Cricket in Times Square and its sequels (Farrar Straus Giroux). He created the character and pictures for the first book in the Frances series by Russell Hoban (HarperCollins) and the first books in the Miss Bianca series by Margery Sharp (Little, Brown). He collaborated with Margaret Wise Brown on her Little Golden Books titles Home for a Bunny and Little Fur Family, among others, and with Jack Prelutsky on two poetry collections published by Greenwillow: Ride a Purple Pelican and Beneath a Blue Umbrella . He also wrote and illustrated seven books on his own, including Baby Farm Animals (Little Golden Books) and The Rabbits’ Wedding (HarperCollins).
Reviews
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息をつかせぬ展開
読み始めたら、なかなかやめられなくなってしまいました。次々と起こる苦難に、ハラハラさせられます。たくましい家族。
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幼年期の終わりとひとりだちの痛み
インガルス一家物語の３冊目。この作品で作者はニューベリー賞を受賞しており、ペーパーバック版の表紙にはメダルが誇らしげに印刷されています。 このシリーズは昔から大好きだったのですが、実はこの巻だけはあまり好きではありませんでした。作中のローラと同じ８−９歳の頃の自分には、父さん母さんの言うことをきかなくなったローラが急に悪い子になったように感じられました。ネリーとのやりとりも、現実でいじめられていた自分には楽しめなかったし、後半の暗い雰囲気もつらかった。何だかローラが辛い目にあってばかりいる巻、と感じられ、読み返すのをためらってしまったものです。 けれどローラが親の言うことをきかなくなったのは、何も考えずにただ両親に従う幼い子どもではなくなったからなのです。 とはいえ、ひとりだちを始めた子どもって危ない……。自分が子育てをする年になったからこその感想なのですが、ローラが危なっかしくて危なっかしくて、ヒヤヒヤしてしまいました。成長するということはこんなにも危険に満ちあふれているのですね。その危険を越えなくてはひとりだちできないのですが。 そして作中の最初のクリスマスのエピソードは私には少し切ない。このエピソードで、ローラは完全に幼児期を終える気がします。父さん母さんにただ守られていた「大きな森」「大草原」のローラと、本作のローラは決定的に違うのです。 このエピソードを経て、その後は少女期を始めるローラが語られていくようになります。学校に行き、買い物をし、ローラの社会は外に広がっていく。町の生活が、子ども時代に読んだ時は窮屈に感じられましたが、その通り、人と付き合うのは気を遣うし、ドキドキするものです。 そして伏線を張りに張った末の蝗害。（これは大人目線で読んだほうが圧倒的にコワい。）父が不在がちになった家で、家族のためにがんばるローラの姿は痛々しいが、頼もしく感じられました。 幼児期を終えたローラが社会の中でひとりだちに向かっていく様子が鮮やかに描かれた物語であり、自然の美しさや厳しさと、その中で伸びやかに暮らす当時の人々を描いた前２作とは違う趣きですが、良作と思いました。 最後になりますが、今回もカラー版のペーパーバックに挑戦しています。活字も少し小さくなり、文章の比重も増えて初めは少し怖気づきましたが、いつもの奔流のような文章にのせられさほど時間をかけず読了できました。カラーの挿絵はやはり美しく楽しめました。
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これって家！？
Little Houseシリーズで，群を抜いて変な？家が，この本の表紙，及び，前半に出てくる，小川のそばの「ダグアウト」。今の時代から考えると，まるで冗談のような「家」ですが，Ingallsファミリーは元気一杯生きていきます。 やがて，彼らは近くにちゃんとした素敵な家を建てますが，学校に行くことになったLauraとMary姉妹は，ドラマでお馴染みの，あのNelly Olesonに出会います・・。 この本は1章の長さが短く，場面が次々と変わります。わかりやすい英語で，どんどん読み進むことができます。今回はどちらかというと，辛い経験が多目ですが，Lauraが何か悪い事をした時，両親のしかり方がとても素敵です。
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Perfect, no complains.
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Sehr leichte Lektüre zum Entspannen.
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Although these books are entertaining . . . and informative! . . . enough to enjoy for a quiet evening read, give your children and grand children the opportunity to hear, and to see through the eyes of Laura Ingalls Wilder, what life was like in America during the Westward Expansion. Her writing is as colorful and pleasantly descriptive as can be, largely because Laura became "the eyes" for her sister Mary when Mary lost her sight. Years of describing tiny wildflowers and rushing rivers and skies full of sunset shaped this daughter of the prairie into a novelist, par excellence. She knew her craft, her audience, her setting and her theme; this, for the reader, is a fluid, heart-warming, scintillating picture of life as the pioneers knew it. In this volume, Pa has traded their horses, wagon and wagon cover for Mr. Hanson's dugout and land on the banks of Plum Creek. Once again Ma and the girls are making a home in the unsettled wilderness, and once again, Pa is planting and hewing and hunting and carving out a good life for his family. This episode, in particular, gives an idea of what it was like to participate in the life of a growing prairie township, attending school and starting a church, and learning to be good neighbors, often with little to give but kindness. The hardships were sore, but the Ingalls family was accustomed to hardships. The story of the love they nurtured is something rich and flavorful to share with those YOU love, and if you are "pioneering" by yourself, brew a cup of coffee (Pa preferred a dish of tea!) and settle in for a true and wonderful story.
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Lovely book
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As clássicas ilustrações de Garth Williams ficaram ainda mais lindas por serem coloridas; e a qualidade acima da média do papel foi uma agradável surpresa.