ウィスコンシン州の雪あらしに耐えるには、ヒョウの襲撃をかわすには、あるいは思いがけず、豚の引くそりに乗る羽目になったときにはどうすればいいか…。どの章を開いても、19世紀も終わりに近い当時の中西部開拓民の暮らしが、驚くほど詳しく、しかも読みやすい筆致で描かれている。熊肉療法だの、メイプルシロップ採集だの、弾丸づくりだのといった、日々の営みが…。

 「小さな家」シリーズはワイルダーの自伝的な物語で、真実味と臨場感にあふれている。読者は苦もなく歴史を学ぶことができ、それどころか、もっと知りたくてたまらなくなるに違いない。人気挿絵画家、ガース・ウィリアムズ（『Charlotte's Web』、『The Cricket in Times Square』の挿絵を担当）は、何年もかけて、少女ローラの開拓者一家について調査した。ウィリアムズの描く柔らかい挿絵は、一家が丸太小屋で過ごした豊かで単純な日々と夜々とを、生き生きとよみがえらせる。1冊読めば、必ず続きを読みたくなるシリーズだ。

   ローラ・インガルス・ワイルダーは1867年、『大きな森の小さな家』で描かれた丸太小屋で生まれた。いまや古典となった「小さな家」シリーズにあるとおり、家族とともにほろ馬車で中西部を横断する。アルマンゾ・ワイルダーと結婚後、同じくほろ馬車で娘のローズを連れて旅をし、ミズーリ州マンスフィールドに到着。ここで「小さな家」シリーズを執筆し、90歳で亡くなったが、今も何百万人もの読者の心の中で、大好きな「小さな家」の開拓者一家の少女として、永遠に生き続けている。

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) was born in a log cabin in the Wisconsin woods. With her family, she pioneered throughout America’s heartland during the 1870s and 1880s, finally settling in Dakota Territory. She married Almanzo Wilder in 1885; their only daughter, Rose, was born the following year. The Wilders moved to Rocky Ridge Farm at Mansfield, Missouri, in 1894, where they established a permanent home. After years of farming, Laura wrote the first of her beloved Little House books in 1932. The nine Little House books are international classics. Her writings live on into the twenty-first century as America’s quintessential pioneer story.

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).