<P> The Little House series is based on decades - old memories of Laura Ingalls Wilder 's childhood in the northern Midwest region of the United States late in the 19th century . The books are narrated in the third person with Laura Ingalls as the central character and protagonist , and are generally classified as fiction rather than as autobiography in libraries and bookstores . Wilder 's daughter Rose Wilder Lane assisted her mother with the editing of the works . The depth of her involvement , and the extent of her influence on the theme and content of the books , has been the subject of some scholarly debate in recent years . Almost all Wilder scholars and her biographers consider that the writing of the books was a tense but ultimately effective continuing collaboration between mother and daughter , with Wilder writing the books and her daughter editing them . </P>
where was little house on the prairie supposed to take place
northern Midwest region of the United States