Feral Kids Academy

By Skye Veach

The book I read is called Farmer Boy written by Laura Ingalls Wilder and illustrated by Garth Williams. The book is about the Wilder family and how they live in New York state. The point of the story was to introduce us to the Wilder family and how they live as potato farmers. I liked this book because it taught me about how the farming business was back in 1866.

In the beginning of the book, we get to see how school was in a schoolhouse. The main characters of the book are Father, Mother, Royal, Eliza, Alice, and Almanzo wilder. They lived on a farm five miles away from the town of Malone, New York. They lived near a forest of oak, maple, beech and evergreen trees. They also lived near Trout River where they would fish and swim. But they did not get to play a lot because they had to grow potatoes to make money to get stuff like shoes and cups.

Near the middle of the book, we see a few events that happen. Independents Day, the Wilders got to see men shoot a cannon. They were very shocked by how loud the cannon was. Another event happens where Almanzo is being teased for bring a poor farmer by his rich cousin who said that he did not have any money to buy a lemonade for 50 cents. Almanzo had to ask Father if he could have 50 cents, which was a lot of money back then. Only city kids were able to get money from their parents and Almanzo was not a city kid. Later in the book, Almanzo was logging with his father and some neighbors, and he loaded the wagon too full and one of the logs fell on Almanzo! Luckily, he was not hurt at all.

Near the end of the book Almanzo gets $200 for bringing back Mr. Thomason’s wallet which was dropped on the side of the road. But when he got into the shop where the Mr. Thomason was shopping, Mr. Thomason accused Almanzo of stealing his wallet. Almanzo was trying to help Mr. Thomason but the shop owner defended Almanzo character to Mr. Thomason. This was my least favorite part because Almanzo was helping Mr. Thomason and he stared calling Almanzo names. My favorite part of the book was when Almanzo gets to keep Starlight the calf as a pet. I liked this part because Almanzo had already trained Starlight to do what he said to do. She also could haul timber logs on a cart.

I enjoyed this story because it showed me how they had to farm in 1866. I thought it was cool that their school was in a schoolhouse. I also got to see how life was very different for city kids verses country kids. It was not easy to farm crops because sometimes the weather could make the crops not grow right or even kill them. If their crops died, the family had no money. I think being a farmer would have been a very hard thing to do and it would take up a lot of time. As a kid, you wouldn’t get to just play outside, you would only get to work. In conclusion, I would recommend this book to kids who like historical books.