The eighth book in Laura Ingalls Wilder's treasured Little House series, and the recipient of a Newbery Honor. Fifteen-year-old Laura lives apart from her family for the first time, teaching school in a claim shanty twelve miles from home. She is very homesick, but she knows that her earnings can help pay for her sister Mary's tuition at the college for the blind. Only one thing gets her through the lonely weeksevery weekend, Almanzo Wilder arrives at the school to take Laura home for a visit. Friendship soon turns to love for Laura and Almanzo. The nine Little House books are inspired by Laura's own childhood and have been cherished by generations of readers as both a unique glimpse into America's frontier history and as heartwarming, unforgettable stories. Grade 4-6–Children will enjoy hearing Tony Award-winning narrator Cherry Jones read Laura Ingalls Wilder's stories about her family and her life on the prairie almost 125 years ago in this eighth book in the Laura Years series. Laura is 16 years old, teaching school, and working at local stores to make extra money to help her family send her blind sister to school. She and her girlfriends enjoy sleigh rides, buggy rides, and singing school. But will she decide the time is right to settle down in her own little house with Almanzo Wilder, who courts her throughout the book? This sweet tale about teenage life, first love, and new responsibilities has stood the test of time. The narration is pitch-perfect, and the music provided by Paul Woodiel brings Pa's fiddle to life. An excellent choice for school and public library collections.– Casey Rondini, Hartford Public Library, CT Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Laura is teaching school, and it's terrifying! Most of the students are taller than she is, and she must sleep away from home for the first time. Laura is miserable, but the money is needed to keep Mary in a college for the blind. And every Friday–no matter what the weather–Almanzo Wilder arrives to take Laura home to her family for the weekend. Laura and Almanzo are courting, and even though she's not yet sixteen, she knows that this is a time for new beginnings. These Happy Golden Years is the eight book in the Laura Years series. 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. Cherry Jones won the Tony ® Award for best actress for both The Heiress and Doubt , and received two Tony ® nominations for her work in A Moon for the Misbegotten and Our Country's Good ; she can be seen in the films The Perfect Storm, Erin Brockovich, The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, and Cold Mountain . These Happy Golden Years By Laura Ingalls Wilder Harper Children's Audio Copyright ©2006 Laura Ingalls Wilder All right reserved. ISBN: 9780060565084 Chapter One Laura Leaves Home Sunday afternoon was clear, and the snow-covered prairie sparkled in the sunshine. A little wind blew gently from the south, but it was so cold that the sled runners squeaked as they slid on the hard-packed snow. The horses' hoofs made a dull sound, clop, clop, clop. Pa did not say anything. Sitting beside him on the board laid across the bobsled, Laura did not say anything, either. There was nothing to say. She was on her way to teach school. Only yesterday she was a schoolgirl; now she was a school teacher. This had happened so suddenly. Laura could hardly stop expecting that tomorrow she would be going to school with little sister Carrie, and sitting in her seat with Ida Brown. But tomorrow she would be teaching school. She did not really know how to do it. She never had taught school, and she was not sixteen years old yet. Even for fifteen, she was small; and now she felt very small. The slightly rolling, snowy land lay empty all around. The high, thin sky was empty overhead. Laura did not look back, but she knew that the town was miles behind her now; it was only a small dark blot on the empty prairie's whiteness. In the warm sitting room there, Ma and Carrie and Grace were far away. Brewster settlement was still miles ahead. It was twelve miles from town. Laura did not know what it was like. She did not know anyone there. She had seen Mr. Brewster only once, when he came to hire her to teach the school. He was thin and brown, like any homesteader; he did not have much to say for himself Pa sat looking ahead into the distance while he held the reins in his mittened hands and now and then chirruped to the horses. But he knew how Laura felt. At last he turned his face toward her and spoke, as if he were answering her dread of tomorrow. "Well, Laura! You are a schoo