Immerse yourself in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s beloved Little House series, now featuring Garth Williams’ classic art in vibrant full-color!  While Laura Ingalls grows up in a little house on the western prairie, Almanzo Wilder is living on a big farm in New York State. Almanzo and his brother and sisters help with the summer planting and fall harvest. In winter there is wood to be chopped and great slabs of ice to be cut from the river and stored. Almanzo wishes for just one thing—his very own horse—but he must prove that he is ready for such a big responsibility. Based on the childhood of Laura’s husband, Almanzo Wilder, Farmer Boy is the second book in the award-winning Little House series, which has captivated generations of readers with its depiction of life on the American frontier. For the first time in the history of the Little House books, this new edition features Garth Williams’ interior art in vibrant, full color, as well as beautifully redesigned covers. While Laura Ingalls grows up in a little house on the western prairie, Almanzo Wilder is living on a big farm in New York State. Here Almanzo and his brother and sisters help with the summer planting and fall harvest. In winter there is wood to be chopped and great slabs of ice to be cut from the river and stored. Time for fun comes when the jolly tin peddler visits, or best of all, when the fair comes to town. This is Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved story of how her husband Almanzo grew up as a farmer boy far from the little house where Laura lived. 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). Farmer Boy By Wilder, Laura Ingalls HarperTrophy ISBN: 0060581824 School Days It was January in northern New York State, sixty-seven years ago. Snow lay deep everywhere. It loaded the bare limbs of oaks and maples and beeches, it bent the green boughs of cedars and spruces down into the drifts. Billows of snow covered the fields and the stone fences. Down a long road through the woods a little boy trudged to school, with his big brother Royal and his two sisters, Eliza Jane and Alice. Royal was thirteen years old, Eliza Jane was twelve, and Alice was ten. Almanzo was the youngest of all, and this was his first going-to-school, because he was not quite nine years old. He had to walk fast to keep up with the others, and he had to carry the dinner-pail. "Royal ought to carry it," he said. "He's bigger than I be." Royal strode ahead, big and manly in boots, and Eliza Jane said: "No, 'Manzo. It's your turn to carry it now, because you're the littlest." Eliza Jane was bossy. She always knew what was best to do, and she made Almanzo, and Alice do it. Almanzo hurried behind Royal, and Alice hurried behind Eliza Jane, in the deep paths made by bobsled runners. On each side the soft snow was piled high. The road went down a long slope, then it crossed a little bridge and went on for a mile through the frozen woods to the schoolhouse. The cold nipped Almanzo's eyelids and numbed his nose, but inside his good woolen clothes he was warm. They were all made from the wool of his father's sheep. His underwear was creamy white, but Mother had dyed the wool for his outside clothes. Butternut hulls had dyed the thread for his coat and his long trousers. Then Mother