This volume includes: By the Shores of Silver Lake, The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years and The First Four Years.
I had picked up this volume at the same time as Volume 1, and it was interesting to just read them straight through, one book after another. Like the previous volume, this edition has a chronology and notes section, which gives additional information. I had forgotten parts of the stories, since it had been so long since I had read them, but other parts came back to me pretty clearly. Like with the other books, it's interesting to read these stories with the knowledge of history I have as an adult. Some of the comments that characters make become a bit more vivid, as does some of what happens. For example, at one point, Laura's family loses crops to a grasshopper invasion. This was pretty awful to read about when I was a child, but it was hard for me to envision. Now, with my knowledge of that kind of event, as well as events like the Dust Bowl, this kind of thing felt even more awful. When Laura's family is caught in a long winter, they almost starve, and this felt especially vivid and compelling to me reading the story now.
It's been an interesting experience to read these books, especially with the additional notes at the back because it's more like reading a memoir dressed up as stories.
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