The word 'Indian', referring to Native Americans, appears 12 times in it, most of them dealing with the Ingalls' time in Indian Territory. In 1997, the novel was challenged by two parents from Winnipeg, Canada who took issue with the portrayal of Native Americans in it and wanted a local school division to pull it from its libraries and lessons. The novel was the first of five Newbery Honor books for Wilder, books 4 to 8 in the series.

'If anything, it is better than her enchanting Little House in the Big Woods. .Laura is always in trouble, but a staunch young person when brought to the text. In Kirkus Reviews, her semi-monthly bulletin from 1933, she awarded this novel a starred review (as she did its one predecessor and two successors, books 3 to 6 and no others). Virginia Kirkus had handled Wilder's debut novel Little House in the Big Woods for Harper & Brothers as its book editor from 1926 to 1932. So, the novel ends with the happy family reunited on Christmas Eve. Finally Pa arrives home it turns out that he had been within shouting distance of the house throughout the blizzard but had no way of realizing it in the blinding storm. The community's school closes in response to the disaster, spoiling the girls' opportunity to continue attending school.Ī severe four-day blizzard hits, delaying Pa's homecoming, but Ma plays games with the girls to keep their spirits up. For two harvest seasons, Pa is forced to walk 300 mi (480 km) east to find work on other farms. The Ingalls go through very hard times when the Locust Plague of 1874 destroys both the much-anticipated wheat crop, and any possibility of a successful crop the following year.

There they make friends, and also meet the town storekeeper's daughter, Nellie Oleson, who makes fun of Laura and Mary for being 'country girls.' After Laura and Mary attend a party at the Oleson's home, Ma reciprocates by inviting all the girls to their own party, where Nellie mistreats Jack, the Ingalls’ dog, and speaks rudely to Ma (but Laura feels vindicated when the girls go wading and Nellie gets covered with leeches). Now that they live near a town, Laura and Mary go to school for the first time. Pa soon builds a new, above-ground, wooden house for his family, trusting that their first crop of wheat will pay for the lumber and materials. Later, Pa trades for two new horses as Christmas presents for his family, which Laura and her sister, Mary, name Sam and David. Pa trades two ponies for a dugout and a stable. Having left their little house on the Kansas prairie, the Ingalls family travels by covered wagon to Minnesota and settles on the banks of Plum Creek. Class=notpageimage| Location of the dugout 'On the Banks of Plum Creek' in Minnesota

Little house on the banks of plum creek