NOVEL

The Little House Books: The Library of America Collection. The Library of America has just reissued Laura Ingalls Wilder’s autobiographical novels of frontier life on the American prairie, originally published between 1932 and 1943, in a two-volume slipcovered set edited and annotated by Caroline Fraser. These “children’s novels” are permanent classics of American literature. If, like me, you first encountered them when young but didn’t read them again until middle age, you’ll be astonished by how good they are–and how poetic. I miss Garth Williams’ lovely illustrations, but you don’t need them to appreciate Wilder’s gifts (TT).