By the Shores of Silver Lake is an autobiographical children's novel written by Laura Ingalls Wilder and published in 1939, the fifth of nine books in her Little House series.

[4] The novel is based on Laura's late childhood spent near De Smet, South Dakota, beginning in 1879.

[5] The story begins in Plum Creek, shortly after the Ingalls have recovered from the scarlet fever which caused Mary to become blind.

Aunt Docia comes to visit, and suggests that Pa work as the bookkeeper in Uncle Henry's railroad camp for fifty dollars a month.

The morning Pa is to leave, their beloved old bulldog, Jack, dies in his sleep, saddening Laura greatly.

(The dog upon whom he was based was no longer with the Ingalls at that point, but Laura inserted his death here to serve as a transition between her childhood and her adolescence.)

This is their first train trip and they are excited by this mode of transportation, which can cover in a few hours the distance a horse and wagon would travel in a day.

To pass time, Mrs. Boast shares her collection of newspapers with Laura and shows the Ingalls how to make a what-not.

In the spring of 1880, Charles filed a homestead claim south of De Smet for the NE quarter of Section 3, Township 110, Range 56.

Virginia Kirkus had handled Ingalls Wilder's debut novel Little House in the Big Woods for Harper & Brothers as its book editor from 1926 to 1932.

She assessed it frankly as the bookshop's advisor: "One always hesitates as to whether these stories of Laura Wilder's childhood belong with fiction or non-fiction, so place this where you have found the others sell best.