Little City by the Lake (The Caroline Years Series #6) by Celia Wilkins, Dan Andreasen (Illustrator)

Synopsis

Spirit of the Western Frontier

Fifteen-year-old Caroline is leaving her Concord home for the first time to live with her aunt and uncle in Milwaukee, where she will attend Milwaukee Female College. At first, Caroline is frightened by the big, bustling city, and she finds school more challenging than she expected. But she soon begins to enjoy all the excitement Milwaukee has to offer. As the school year comes to a close, Caroline wonders if living in the city is the life for her.

Little City by the Lake is the sixth book in The Caroline Years, an ongoing series about another girl from America's favorite pioneer family.

Annotation

Fifteen-year-old Caroline Quiner, who will become the mother of Laura Ingalls Wilder, moves to Milwaukee in 1855 to experience city life and attend school.

Elaine Wick - Children's Literature

Like other books in the "The Caroline Years" series, this sixth book about Caroline Quiner, the girl who grew up to be Ma Ingalls, Laura's mother in "The Little House" books, is an endearing story of frontier life in America. Author Wilkins based her portrait of Caroline's life on letters about day-to-day life in the 1850s. Little City by the Lake is the story of 15-year-old Caroline's adventures and introduction to city life while attending the Milwaukee Female College established by Catharine Beecher. From Caroline's uncomfortable stagecoach ride from the prairie to the city, to her amazement at the life of wealthy Uncle Elisha and Aunt Jane, readers will be immersed in details of life in this period. While there is little tension driving the slow-paced story, the text is absorbing-foods of the period, how a newsroom (The Milwaukee Weekly Register) runs, formal balls or the growth of a new city on Lake Michigan. Readers will be especially interested in clothing styles and how dresses are made, hairdos of the day and the nature of a well-run women's school. Information is imparted nicely through characters and their roles, even though an active voice is sometimes missing. While Caroline is a bit distant to the reader, one sees a polite, grateful, sentimental young woman experience a completely different life, with even a hint of romance. Like other books in the series, Little House followers will appreciate learning more about a special family member and the fine details of life in nineteenth century Wisconsin. 2003, HarperCollins, Ages 8 to 12.

Biography

Celia Wilkins has studied letters, diaries, and documents pertaining to the Quiner and Wilder families, and she extensively researched early settler life of the nineteenth century in Wisconsin. She lives in her own little 1850's house in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and son.