#114 in Children’s books
On the Banks of Plum Creek
- 338
- Pages
- about 6 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“On the Banks of Plum Creek” paints a warm, clear-eyed picture of pioneer family life in 1870s Minnesota. Based on some five years of Wilder’s own childhood near Walnut Grove, it does not hide how hard things were for the Ingalls family. Some readers find the first half slow. Others value it as an easy way into the everyday reality of rural America, for children and adults alike.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
On the Banks of Plum Creek is an autobiographical children's novel written by Laura Ingalls Wilder and published in 1937, the fourth of nine books in her Little House series. It is based on about five years of her childhood when the Ingalls family lived at Plum Creek near Walnut Grove, Minnesota, during the 1870s. The original dust jacket proclaimed: "The true story of an American pioneer family by the author of Little House in the Big Woods".
Reading order · Little House on the Prairie
Full order & progress →- Little House in the Big WoodsStart here
7.97.9 / 10 - Farmer Boy
7.97.9 / 10 - Little House on the Prairie
7.97.9 / 10 - On the Banks of Plum CreekThis book
7.97.9 / 10 - By the Shores of Silver Lake
7.77.7 / 10 - The Long Winter
7.97.9 / 10 - Little Town on the Prairie
7.87.8 / 10 - These Happy Golden Years
7.87.8 / 10 - The First Four Years
7.67.6 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.7 across 129 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 47% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Children’s books average of 7.9. That is how 7.9 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.9 | 22 | 17% |
| Hardcover | 7.7 | 107 | 83% |
Frequently asked
What age is On the Banks of Plum Creek for?
On the Banks of Plum Creek sits on the Children shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 5–10. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 338 pages — shorter than 74% of the ranked books in Children’s books.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Children’s books — with scores between 7.7 and 8.1, closest to this book.
