The original Little House on the Prairie books were a series of eight autobiographical children's novels based on the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, who heavily informed the content as well as edited each book. The books were published by Harper & Brothers from 1932 to 1943. The eighth book, These Happy Golden Years, featured Laura Ingalls at ages 15 to 18 and was originally published with one page at the end containing the note, "The end of the Little House books." The ninth and last novel written by Wilder, The First Four Years was published posthumously in 1971. Although her intentions are unknown, it is commonly considered part of the Little House series and is included in the 9-volume paperback box set Little House, Big Adventure (Harper Trophy, May 1994).

Several book series and some single novels by other writers have been published for children, young adults and adult readers. They provide fictionalized accounts of the lives of Wilder's great-grandmother Martha Morse Tucker, grandmother Charlotte Tucker Quiner, mother Caroline Ingalls, and daughter Rose Wilder Lane's childhood and teenage years, as well as Wilder's own missing years—those portions of her life not featured in her novels, including most of her adult life. One story not written by Wilder is Old Town in the Green Groves by Cynthia Rylant. It tells the story of the "lost little house" years.

In addition, simplified versions of the original series have been published for younger children in chapter and picture book form.

Some nonfiction books by Ingalls Wilder, and some by other writers, are sometimes called Little House books or Little House on the Prairie books.

The eight Little House books published during the author's lifetime are public domain in countries where the term of copyright lasts 50 years or less after the death of the author.

Little House in the Big Woods

The story of the first book in the series, Little House in the Big Woods, revolves around the life of the Ingalls family in their small home near Pepin, Wisconsin. The family includes mother Caroline Lake Quiner Ingalls, father Charles Phillip Ingalls, eldest daughter Mary Amelia Ingalls, middle daughter (and protagonist) Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder, and youngest sister Carrie.Carrie IngallsGormley, Laura Ingalls Wilder: Young Pioneer, p. 36. Although Laura turns five years old during the book, the author was actually only three years old during the real-life events documented in the novel. According to a letter from Wilder's daughter, Rose, to biographer William Anderson, the publisher had Laura change her age in the book because it seemed unrealistic for a three-year-old to have such specific memories.Anderson, Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Iowa Story pp. 1–2. For the sake of continuity, in Wilder's later book Little House on the Prairie, Laura portrayed herself as between six and seven years of age.

Little House in the Big Woods describes the homesteading skills Laura observed and began to practice during her fifth year. The cousins come for Christmas that year, and Laura receives a doll, which she names Charlotte. Later that winter, the family goes to Grandma Ingalls's and has a “sugaring off”. The family and neighbors harvest sap and make maple syrup. The Ingalls family returns home with buckets of syrup, enough to last the year. Laura remembered that sugaring off, and the dance that followed, for the rest of her life.

The book also describes other farm work duties and events, such as the birth of a calf, and the availability of milk, butter and cheese, gardening, field work, and hunting and gathering. Everyday housework is described in detail. When Pa goes into the woods to hunt, he usually comes home with a deer and smokes the meat for the coming winter. One day he notices a bee tree and returns from hunting early to get the wash tub and milk pail to collect the honey. When Pa returns in the winter evenings, Laura and Mary beg him to play his fiddle, as he is too tired from farm work to play during the summertime.

Farmer Boy

Farmer Boy, published in 1933, is the second of the Little House series. It is the sole book that does not focus on the childhood of Laura Ingalls. It is focused on the childhood of Laura's future husband, Almanzo Wilder, growing up on a farm in upstate New York in the 1860s. It takes place before Laura was born.

The book begins just before Wilder's ninth birthday and follows at least two harvest cycles. Set around 1866, it describes in detail the endless chores involved in running the Wilder family farm and Almanzo's part in it. The novel includes stories of Almanzo's brother Royal and his sisters, Eliza Jane and Alice.

Notably, the ages of the Wilder children do not appear to be accurate to their real ages in comparison to Almanzo. Royal is stated to be thirteen, and Eliza Jane and Alice twelve and ten respectively, at the time when Almanzo is just prior to nine years old. In reality, when Almanzo turned nine, Royal would have been nineteen, old enough to leave home, and Eliza Jane and Alice would have been sixteen and twelve years old. This makes it likely that parts of the storyline based around the three older children was fabricated, at least in terms of what Almanzo himself could remember.

Almanzo had a third sister, Laura (1844–1899), who at the time and events in the novel was already about twenty-two and had presumably moved out. He later had a brother, Perley (1869–1934), who was not yet born at the time Farmer Boy is set.

Little House on the Prairie

Little House on the Prairie, published in 1935, is the third of the series of books known as the Little House series, but only the second book to focus on the life of the Ingalls family. The book takes place from 1874 to 1875.

The book tells about the months the Ingalls family spent on the prairie of Kansas, around the town of Independence, Kansas. At the beginning of this story, Pa Ingalls decides to sell the house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, and move the family, via covered wagon to the Indian Territory near Independence, Kansas, as there were widely circulating stories that the land (technically still under Osage ownership) would be opened to settlement by homesteaders. Laura, along with Pa and Ma, Mary, and baby Carrie, moves to Kansas. Along the way, Pa trades his two horses for two Western mustangs, which Laura and Mary name Pet and Patty.

When the family reaches Indian Territory, they meet Mr. Edwards, who is extremely polite to Ma, but tells Laura and Mary that he is "a wildcat from Tennessee." Mr. Edwards is an excellent neighbor, and helps the Ingalls family in every way he can, beginning with helping Pa build their house. Pa builds a roof and a floor for the house and digs a well with assistance from another neighbor, Mr. Scott, and the family is finally settled.

Unlike during their time in the Big Woods, the family meets difficulty and danger on the prairie. The Ingallses become terribly ill with "fever 'n' ague" (fever with severe chills and shaking) which was later identified as malaria. Laura comments on the varied ways they believe to have acquired it, with a neighbor woman asserting that it came from eating bad watermelon. Dr. Tan, an African American who was an Indian doctor, takes care of the family while they are sick. Around this time, Mr. Edwards brings Laura and Mary their Christmas presents from Independence, and in the spring, the Ingallses plant the beginnings of a small farm.

Ma's prejudice against American Indians, and Laura's juvenile feelings, are shown side by side with the portrayal of the Osage tribe that lives on and owns the Ingalls family's land. A memorable scene of the Osage departing for the west culminates with Laura's captivation with a serious Osage baby, who stares intently at Laura from a basket hanging off the horse ridden by his mother. Laura clamors to keep that baby ("His eyes are so black"), which shocks both Ma and Pa.

At the end of this book, the family is told that the land must be vacated by settlers as it is not legally open to settlement yet, and in 1875 Pa elects to leave the land and move before the Army forcibly requires him to abandon the land.

Many of the incidents in the book are actual situations that happened to the Ingalls family. In fact, the years the events actually took place were 1869 to 1870. So Laura was actually two to three years old while the Ingalls family lived in Indian Territory during 1869–1870, and she did not remember the incidents herself. She did more historical research on this novel than on any other novel she wrote in an attempt to have all details as accurate as possible.

On the Banks of Plum Creek

The fourth book in the series, On the Banks of Plum Creek, takes place from 1875 to 1877. It follows the Ingalls family as they move from Kansas to an area near Walnut Grove, Minnesota, and settle in a dugout "on the banks of Plum Creek (Redwood County, Minnesota)". Jack, the family bulldog, moves with the family to Plum Creek, though in real life he did not make the journey. Laura's age is still not accurately portrayed in relation to actual events. During the course of the story, Laura is between the ages of seven and nine years old.

Pa trades his horses Pet and Patty to the property owner (a man named Hanson) for the land and crops, but later gets two new horses as Christmas presents for the family, which Laura and her sister Mary name "Sam" and "David". Pa soon builds an above-ground wooden house for the family. Laura and Mary go to school for the first time at Barry Corner School, where they meet their teacher, Miss Eva Beadle, and befriend Christy and Cassie Kennedy. They also meet Nellie Oleson, who makes fun of Laura and Mary for being "country girls." They begin attending the town church on Sundays, with services given by the widely loved Reverend Alden, and Laura and Mary go to Sunday School with their new friends. Laura plays with her bulldog Jack when she is home, and she and Mary are invited to a party at the Olesons' home. Laura and Mary invite all the girls (including Nellie) to a party at their house to reciprocate. The family soon goes through hard times when a plague of Rocky Mountain locusts, or grasshoppers, devastates their crops. For the family to survive, Pa has to go east alone to get a job to make money to get them through the year. The whole family is very excited when he returns from this job. The book ends with Pa returning safely to the house after being unaccounted for during a severe four-day blizzard.

By the Shores of Silver Lake

The fifth book in the series, By the Shores of Silver Lake is based on Laura's late childhood spent near De Smet, South Dakota, beginning in 1879. The book also introduces Laura's youngest sister Grace.

The story begins when the family is about to leave Plum Creek, shortly after the family has recovered from the scarlet fever which caused Mary to become blind. The family welcomes a visit from Aunt Docia, whom they had not seen for several years. She suggests that Pa and Ma move west to the rapidly developing Dakota Territory, where Pa could work in Uncle Henry's railroad camp. Ma and Pa agree, since it will allow Pa to look for a homestead while he works. The family has endured many hardships on Plum Creek and Pa especially is anxious for a new start. After selling his land and farm to neighbors, Pa goes ahead with the wagon and team. Mary is still too weak to travel so the rest of the family follows later by train.