

It's the last proper Little House book ("The First Four Years" doesn't count as far as I'm concerned!) and everyone is growing up or growing old and it's that moment of change from child/teen to adult, dependence to independence that makes it so poignant. She's a woman who knows she's loved and loves back wholeheartedly.īut the book is also bittersweet. The times spent with friends and family, and happy teaching experiences for Laura are also lovely to read. Almanzo's persistence in courting Laura, and the fact that he collected her every week in freezing winter weather from the first school she taught is beautiful. The book makes me happy inside, the gentle way that Laura and Almanzo become a couple and go out on rides together. It seemed eminently suitable to read before my own marriage. The reason for this? I think that "These Happy Golden Years" is the first book that I ever read in which a courtship and marriage was described in any detail - I was probably 8 or 9 on first reading of it. This is the book I read the night before I got married ten years ago.
