Laura Ingalls Wilder Books

I thought this scrapbook would be like the "Egyptology", "Wizardology" etc. books; with the removable pieces inside the book.

Laura's Album shows readers actual snapshots from the life of writer, Laura Ingalls Wilder. Apparently Mrs. Wilder found it difficult to throw things away. As a result the reader is treated to pictures of some of the people and objects described in the Little House books. There are pictures of her entire family and pictures of the fiddle that Pa plays so merrily in many of the books.

The reader is also given a brief history of the wanderings and lives of Mrs. Wilder and her kinfolk. Much of the focus is on Mrs. Wilder's adult life and what she did as her fame began to spread.

This book is a must for fans of the Little House books and anybody who is interested in what rural life was like in the United States in the late 1800s.

This book is excellent. I bought it because I especially liked the format, layout, & all the photographs & old documents reproduced. For all the many people who have read Laura's books, these illustrations help know the pioneer life of these people.

this book is very interesting with information if interested in the life of Laura E. Wilder. The ending would be more of an ending if pictures of the place of burial of her and her family were included in the book.

I love Laura Ingalls Wilder and her works. This book tells more about the real person and the real family. Very interesting. I feel like I know her,though reading this book.

This is a wonderful series, enjoyed by myself as much as my daughters. After reading all of the Martha books, Martha Morse and her family live in my head, they're well written, delightful characters. Make sure you search out one of the original, unabridged editions. The ones with photographs on the cover are severely abridged. It's amazing what publishers can get away with. If the same were done to beautiful paintings or statues it would be called vandalism.

This book is fabulous! Six year old Martha Morse loves running through fields of heather,visiting her neighbors and playing on the Creag. But,being a laird`s daughter she must learn to be proper. But that is difficult when there is so much to do in Glencariad!

Six year old Martha is a very energetic and very curious little girl who has a very active mind. She wants to have a part in everything and wants to learn about various aspects of the Scottish traditions and what she can do to help out with the adventures. This book mainly is set in the Glencaraid Valley (friendly valley) around the Stone House where the family resided. She is very friendly with the servants, and the neighbors who were surrounding the space in the valley. If you would like to learn the adventures that Martha goes through, then read this book, and you will not be disappointed.

Warning - you will enjoy this book, and the series will not be finished according to the author herself. Why? Here's what she had to say on her website.

"The Time Has Come, the Walrus Said...
...to talk about Little House. Many of you have written to ask when my next Martha or Charlotte book will be published. Plans have been in flux for over a year now, but it's time to address your questions.
As I mentioned here recently, HarperCollins has launched new paperback editions of Laura's books which feature photographic covers and no longer contain the Garth Williams illustrations. (The Garth Williams art will remain in the hardcover editions and the colorized paperback editions.)
There are also going to be some changes in the other Little House series. The Martha, Charlotte, Caroline, and Rose books are being reissued in abridged editions. If you wish to read these books in their original, complete forms, you'll want to pick them up now before the unabridged editions go out of print. In at least one case ( On Top of Concord Hill, a Caroline book), the original is already out of print and is hard to find. (A reader recently told me copies are selling for hundreds of dollars on eBay.)
The abridged editions of my books and the Caroline and Rose books will be released with new covers this summer. They are significantly shorter; in some cases more than a hundred pages have been cut from the original edition.
In light of these changes, I have decided not to continue writing Martha and Charlotte books. Although it is indeed strange to know that I will not tell the rest of their stories (especially the story of Martha and Lew's romance, for which I have been sowing seeds since the first books), I do not think it is such a bad thing to end my part of the story with Beyond the Heather Hills and Across the Puddingstone Dam. In both of those books, I had the opportunity to say something about what is good and true and enduring in this world. Martha glimpsed it, looking into the eyes of her infant niece. Charlotte glimpsed it in the eyes of her mother, the grown-up Martha, who endured the worst kind of loss but, through faith, managed to keep hold of--and share--her joy.
It will be difficult to say goodbye to these girls who have been to me like my own children. I have loved watching them grow. I am deeply honored to have had the opportunity to, in the words of Gail Godwin, "respectfully imagine" them and chronicle their stories.
As I said, my decision to leave the series has been in the works for quite some time. Meanwhile, I've been working on new projects and am quite excited about my current novel, which is about neither a Scottish lass nor a New England villager, but something completely different. Stay tuned...

You Guys Are Great
Thank you so much for the outpouring of support and well wishes you have given in the comments from yesterday's post. You all are wonderful, and it's a blessing to have such passionate readers!
Some questions naturally arose in the comments, and I thought I'd tackle a few of them here. One important point is that HarperCollins doesn't think of the abridgements as dumbed-down. I do, and that I am strongly opposed to the dumbing-down of children's literature must be obvious from my decision to walk away from a series of books that has been my heart's work for the past decade. Although I came to the decision many months ago, the shock of it still takes my breath away sometimes. I love Martha and Charlotte, really love them. Like daughters. I have written certain scenes between Martha and Lew in my mind a hundred times. I'm sorry that I will not be sharing them with you, more sorry than I can express.
My decision to quit also had serious ramifications for my family. Had I continued with the series, we would still be living in Virginia; Scott would still be a work-at-home freelancer. So quitting was not a decision I made lightly; it had teeth.
And yet, if you read this blog then you know my stance on giving children the highest caliber of literature--not a slimmed-down version of what had been a carefully crafted novel. And so, when it became clear that my publishers were committed to their decision to abridge, I made what I believe to be the right decision--the only decision I could have made. Doing the right thing, I tell my children, is almost never the easy thing.
Certainly, this was a very hard thing to do.
But as I said, while I see the abridgement as dumbing-down, I must say in all fairness that I don't believe my publishers see it that way at all. They see this as an opportunity to bring the books to a younger audience, a way to keep the series in print. The decision was presented to me with excitement and enthusiasm; I really think they were surprised that I was dismayed by it.
I bear them no ill will; indeed, I shall be sorry not to be working with my wonderful HarperCollins editor anymore. She is a gem. I simply disagree, quite gravely, with this publishing decision. I do think children deserve the very best books we can give them. The books I wrote, the books that were carefully and lovingly edited by not one, but two top-notch editors (the great Alix Reid, who edited all eight of my novels, not to mention Newbery winner Ella Enchanted, has since left the publishing world for other pursuits), are, I truly believe, literature of high quality. And I don't think they are too hard, or too long, for young readers. I have heard from too many enthusiastic young readers to believe otherwise.
HarperCollins has made a business decision, and I disagree with it on principle, as an author, a reader, and a mother. I think chopping up the books is a mistake. But--and this is very important--publishers respond to trends in the marketplace. They make decisions based upon what sells. If you, as consumers (readers, parents, booklovers), want to influence publishing trends, you must do it (I am sorry to say) with your pocketbooks. The big publishing houses don't read our blogs; they don't know how we feel about literature versus twaddle. They only know what sells.
I see both sides of this coin, because I live on both sides. I'm a homeschooling mom with a modest household income, and frugality is a must. I'm also a writer whose livelihood depends on people spending money on books. Years ago, Scott and I made a conscious decision to strike a balance between these two competing identities: we resolved not to buy used if the book is still in print and the author is still alive. We buy new books in hardcover as often as possible, because that too sends a message to a publisher. And if we read a book at the library and truly love it, we try to buy a copy of it too.
(Now you know why I have cheap furniture and don't dress well. All the discretionary income goes to books.)
So. I'm deeply gratified that you are ordering copies of my unabridged novels while you can still get them. Deeply gratified--yesterday was a goosebumpy day as the comments and emails came pouring in. But if you really want to show your support for the principles on which I stand, go out and buy a new copy of The Penderwicks. In hardcover, if possible! "

Pretty sad. Don't say you weren't warned. You will want to know how MArtha ends up and none of us will ever find out.

If you enjoy any of the Little House "prequels" get them quick in their original editions. HarperCollins will be rereleasing them in abridged editions only, cutting up to 100 pages in each novel, starting Summer 2007.

We are reading the Little House Series as part of our homeschool curriculum. I have 5 children and the older 4, ages 2-7, can't get enough of these stories, We have read 3 in the series already and are quickly moving through the rest. Along with reading from the Bible, we read Little House books, at least once a day, sometimes twice.

My great grandmother bought me this set when I was a little girl. She read me these stories and shared her own experiences from the early 1900's, which of course is after the conclusion of this series. I think it is a great series to share with your children. I have been reading these to my daughter, who is now 6, for several years. I think they offer perspective, the stories describe a time and a life that most of us could not imagine. And, it's so hard to find a book or series of books that you can trust your children to read without worrying about the message they are receiving. This set is great.

These books are great, even in these days of computers and gadgets! They take you back to a time of simplicity, love, making the most out of nothing and morals. Lessens taught and life experiences shared through the eyes of a young girl in a new and unexplored world. Makes you wish that you were Laura Ingalls, experiencing the daily things she called life.

These are great books...don't get me wrong. But I bought the large set and this set thinking that I would get something different.
Every book was a repeat of books from the larger set...and nothing in the description let me in on this little secret.

Fortunately they are good enough to give away for Christmas gifts!

These eight books were written when Laura Ingalls Wilder was in her late 60s. They are reminiscences of her early years when living on the western frontier of America in the post-Civil War era. While a smell can stimulate memory, many pages are written about the cooking and foods that they had. Laura also describes the intricacies of female dress of that time. Hoop skirts were probably killed off by the bicycle craze of the late 1880s, they even hindered getting into a buggy. The outlook also changes as she ages from a child to teenager to woman.

The "Little House ... Big Woods / Prairie" reflect her life as a child and how she remembers it. Since she was very young in Wisconsin, her memory must have been recovered from the stories of Ma and Pa and her older sister Mary. Could later events have affected her memories? "Farmer Boy" is about the youth of Almanzo Wilder, her future husband, and his life in the far north of New York state. These books are child-oriented.

"Plum Creek / Silver Lake" are about her later years, where she is aware of things like economic conditions that wouldn't be noticed by a child. The "Long Winter", about the terrible winter of 1880/1881, is most oriented to an adult in its description of life on the breaking edge of settlement. The story about the railroad camp won't have much meaning to children who have never experienced such hardships. It is a warning against the assumptions of the corporate railroad. If they build a railroad, the trains may not come on time.

"Little Town / Golden Years" are about her schooling, her school teaching, and her drives in the country with Almanzo, her future husband. I hope they had the happy married life that they deserved.

The books tell what is was like in the late 19th century. If you wondered about the roof on a sod house you will find a description here. Laura tells about digging a well, but the conventions of her time prevent any description on the location of their privy. The politics and events of that time are rarely mentioned, but children and teenagers don't care even today. Then it was work from sun up to sun down, except for Sunday. The Ingalls seem more religious than some others.

There is an economic side to these stories. In the first books the Ingalls live as subsistence farmers, growing or building most of what they consume. Pa hunts game for meat. In the middle of the stories Pa can't hunt, he must buy meat from the wages he earns in town. Laura works so her money can help send Mary to college. By the end the settlers are all raising cash crops to sell. They still have gardens to raise household food, and sew clothes from the cloth they buy. No more homespun. Labor saving devices are bought, like a breaking plow. Mechanized reapers and thrashers are now hired as needed. The forces of nature can still wipe out months and years of work in a few minutes. Hail and tornadoes threaten the growing crops. But the Ingalls strive, endure, and succeed, setting a good example for future countless generations.

This is a great book for reminding children of simpler times. Laura and her family celebrate Christmas with the bare minimum available to them, but with such joy, it can make even children wish for that kind of life.

I have to laugh at those reviewers who seem so offended by these books! Have you actually read the originals?! These books simply take small exerpts from the originals and simplify them for a younger audience. I too absolutely loved the original books and still do. But I'm not going to be able to read them to my 3 year old without her losing interest. Therefore, I share these shorter versions with her and she loves them. When she's older (the originals are recommended for 8-12 year olds) I'll give her the originals. In the meantime these are fabulous and I very much doubt Laura Ingalls Wilder would take offense to them. Seriously, calm down!!

My favorite character is Laura. These are all great books. I have read almost all of them. I just need one more. I really REALLY like the books.
--Elora

The whole entire "My First Little House Books" series is a wonderful way to introduce little ones to the Little House series! The pictures are absolute feasts for little and big eyes alike!
This story in particular is a great illustration of how Christmases used to be. It tells and illustrates the simple joys the children would experience at Christmas time - like candy canes, mittens, and for Laura - her own precious rag doll, Charlotte!
Definately a book you will want to add to your little ones collection!

I really love the "official" Little House books. My four year-old likes me to read them a little at a time, but the illustrations are black and white, and she likes seeing the color illustrations. These books are a very good way to introduce little ones to Laura's world, get them interested, and THEN start reading the original Little House books. The people who are fussing over the books need to chill a little - these are meant to be an intro to Laura;s world, not the end-all and be-all. Y'all know that Laura Wilder would be laughing uproariously at all this fussing, btw.

Charlotte Tucker, the then future grandmother of author Laura Ingalls Wilder, is featured in this book. Charlotte, then 5 in 1812 faces her nation at war. She lives in the Boston area and resents the British blockade because of its direct impact on her life. Since many Patriots (New Englanders, citizens who have cut ties with England) have boycotted British products and businesses, many families did without certain items. Charlotte chafes at not having molassses, which was a treat brought across the Atlantic from England.

I enjoyed this personal look at a period of history and I was captivated by the Boston history. Boston is the Cradle of United States History.

I enjoyed this book. I hope to complete the collection of all books, and I am almost there.

I was terribly disappointed to find after purchasing this book as well as book 2 in the series that it is an abridged version. I wish that fact had been advertised on Amazon as I would have searched for an older complete version.

I love the series, but I and my children want the original version, not a shortened one.

CHarlotte Tucker is Five years old and lives with her mama and papa Her Twelve yeared old brother Lewis who teases her, Tom whose seven and Lydia nine and little Mary whos not even one yet, Charlottes days are busy from helping mama in the garden to visting papas blacksmith shop or hearing mamas storys . Soon Charlottle goes to school and learns her ABCs , Theres one funny part where mama is making pounded cheese and red powder gets into the bowl and it tasted awfull ! Charlotte is a brand new American girl and she and her young country have a lot to learn!

Warning - you will enjoy this book, and the series will not be finished according to the author herself. Why? Here's what she had to say on her website.

"The Time Has Come, the Walrus Said...
...to talk about Little House. Many of you have written to ask when my next Martha or Charlotte book will be published. Plans have been in flux for over a year now, but it's time to address your questions.
As I mentioned here recently, HarperCollins has launched new paperback editions of Laura's books which feature photographic covers and no longer contain the Garth Williams illustrations. (The Garth Williams art will remain in the hardcover editions and the colorized paperback editions.)
There are also going to be some changes in the other Little House series. The Martha, Charlotte, Caroline, and Rose books are being reissued in abridged editions. If you wish to read these books in their original, complete forms, you'll want to pick them up now before the unabridged editions go out of print. In at least one case ( On Top of Concord Hill, a Caroline book), the original is already out of print and is hard to find. (A reader recently told me copies are selling for hundreds of dollars on eBay.)
The abridged editions of my books and the Caroline and Rose books will be released with new covers this summer. They are significantly shorter; in some cases more than a hundred pages have been cut from the original edition.
In light of these changes, I have decided not to continue writing Martha and Charlotte books. Although it is indeed strange to know that I will not tell the rest of their stories (especially the story of Martha and Lew's romance, for which I have been sowing seeds since the first books), I do not think it is such a bad thing to end my part of the story with Beyond the Heather Hills and Across the Puddingstone Dam. In both of those books, I had the opportunity to say something about what is good and true and enduring in this world. Martha glimpsed it, looking into the eyes of her infant niece. Charlotte glimpsed it in the eyes of her mother, the grown-up Martha, who endured the worst kind of loss but, through faith, managed to keep hold of--and share--her joy.
It will be difficult to say goodbye to these girls who have been to me like my own children. I have loved watching them grow. I am deeply honored to have had the opportunity to, in the words of Gail Godwin, "respectfully imagine" them and chronicle their stories.
As I said, my decision to leave the series has been in the works for quite some time. Meanwhile, I've been working on new projects and am quite excited about my current novel, which is about neither a Scottish lass nor a New England villager, but something completely different. Stay tuned...

You Guys Are Great
Thank you so much for the outpouring of support and well wishes you have given in the comments from yesterday's post. You all are wonderful, and it's a blessing to have such passionate readers!
Some questions naturally arose in the comments, and I thought I'd tackle a few of them here. One important point is that HarperCollins doesn't think of the abridgements as dumbed-down. I do, and that I am strongly opposed to the dumbing-down of children's literature must be obvious from my decision to walk away from a series of books that has been my heart's work for the past decade. Although I came to the decision many months ago, the shock of it still takes my breath away sometimes. I love Martha and Charlotte, really love them. Like daughters. I have written certain scenes between Martha and Lew in my mind a hundred times. I'm sorry that I will not be sharing them with you, more sorry than I can express.
My decision to quit also had serious ramifications for my family. Had I continued with the series, we would still be living in Virginia; Scott would still be a work-at-home freelancer. So quitting was not a decision I made lightly; it had teeth.
And yet, if you read this blog then you know my stance on giving children the highest caliber of literature--not a slimmed-down version of what had been a carefully crafted novel. And so, when it became clear that my publishers were committed to their decision to abridge, I made what I believe to be the right decision--the only decision I could have made. Doing the right thing, I tell my children, is almost never the easy thing.
Certainly, this was a very hard thing to do.
But as I said, while I see the abridgement as dumbing-down, I must say in all fairness that I don't believe my publishers see it that way at all. They see this as an opportunity to bring the books to a younger audience, a way to keep the series in print. The decision was presented to me with excitement and enthusiasm; I really think they were surprised that I was dismayed by it.
I bear them no ill will; indeed, I shall be sorry not to be working with my wonderful HarperCollins editor anymore. She is a gem. I simply disagree, quite gravely, with this publishing decision. I do think children deserve the very best books we can give them. The books I wrote, the books that were carefully and lovingly edited by not one, but two top-notch editors (the great Alix Reid, who edited all eight of my novels, not to mention Newbery winner Ella Enchanted, has since left the publishing world for other pursuits), are, I truly believe, literature of high quality. And I don't think they are too hard, or too long, for young readers. I have heard from too many enthusiastic young readers to believe otherwise.
HarperCollins has made a business decision, and I disagree with it on principle, as an author, a reader, and a mother. I think chopping up the books is a mistake. But--and this is very important--publishers respond to trends in the marketplace. They make decisions based upon what sells. If you, as consumers (readers, parents, booklovers), want to influence publishing trends, you must do it (I am sorry to say) with your pocketbooks. The big publishing houses don't read our blogs; they don't know how we feel about literature versus twaddle. They only know what sells.
I see both sides of this coin, because I live on both sides. I'm a homeschooling mom with a modest household income, and frugality is a must. I'm also a writer whose livelihood depends on people spending money on books. Years ago, Scott and I made a conscious decision to strike a balance between these two competing identities: we resolved not to buy used if the book is still in print and the author is still alive. We buy new books in hardcover as often as possible, because that too sends a message to a publisher. And if we read a book at the library and truly love it, we try to buy a copy of it too.
(Now you know why I have cheap furniture and don't dress well. All the discretionary income goes to books.)
So. I'm deeply gratified that you are ordering copies of my unabridged novels while you can still get them. Deeply gratified--yesterday was a goosebumpy day as the comments and emails came pouring in. But if you really want to show your support for the principles on which I stand, go out and buy a new copy of The Penderwicks. In hardcover, if possible! "

Pretty sad. Don't say you weren't warned. You will want to know how MArtha ends up and none of us will ever find out.

These books bring back my childhood. It's always good to be able to do that from time to time.

This book was rather boring and so is the next one. I think it is because roger lea macbride didn't totally write this himself. He passed away before he finished these two books.

This is definitely one of my fave books(i'm 14). I think I first read this book when I was 9 or 10, but I wasn't mature enough to really get all of it yet. Rose is definitly growing up, separating from her mother, making good and bad friends, falling in love, taking big risks and thinking about her future. Frankly she is dying to ditch her boring, ordinary life in her small Ozarks town, but she also has to decide what she is going to do about Paul, her first love, who is gone most of the time. Basically it is a coming-of-age story set in small-town turn-of-the-century America. I liked it especially for the historical value, and would recommend it to anyone who liked the Laura books, or likes historical fiction for young adults. ...

ON THE BANKS OF THE BAYOU is a delight. It is the best of all the Rose books. Rose goes to a Louisiana academy, taking up her aunt's offer. She stays with her aunt, and slowly realizies that she is for womens' rights. She crusades with her aunt to help boost voting for women, and along the way she learns Latin and learns about Lousiana with a new Cajun friend, Odette, and her huge family. It is fun and inspirational, but Rose also learns the horrible truth of slavery and segregation in full. When she eats at an ice-cream parlor under cooling fans, she watches a black girl pay at a special window and sit on a dingy chair in the blazing sun. Rose learns more than Latin, Algebra, and geography. She learns what it is to live in the world.

I found the book interesting but my 8 and 6 year old daughters - huge fans of the Laura years and most of the Rose years -- found it to be boring. Parents should be prepared to discuss some of the historical aspects of this books, such as, women's suffrage, discrimination, turn of the century working conditions, and socialism which are all reoccurring topics in the book. I was a little surprised that the case for socialism was presented without any counter arguments, especially in light of the adult Rose being so opposed to socialism. (I highly recommend Rose's The Discovery of Freedom" if you are interested in learning about her libertarian views.) I can't imagine Roger Lea MacBride (who died while this book was in rough draft) would not have offered up a character to counter the pro-socialist message. If your daughter reads this book, I suggest you also make available Rose's 1936 Saturday Evening Post article "Give Me Liberty" where she makes the case for liberty and individualism. It is an autobiographical account of how she almost became a card-carrying member of the Communist Party, but because of her experiences as an international reporter became convinced that socialism leads down the road to serfdom (See F. A. Hayek's Road to Serfdom.).

There is an impossible situation that uproots the Quiner family from the roots of where they once resided. It was necessary that a new area was found in order to reside in. The new area to settle was near a small town called Concord. They realized that this wasn't built up, and there were very rustic conditions in which there was no running water, no crops, etc. they had to start from scratch in all of this. They were fortunate that they got assistance from a wealthy man who lived in Concord. To find out what type of assistance this wealthy man provided, and the specifics on the comments about the welfare of the family, read this book, and you won't be disappointed.

I just finished this book, it was great! In this book Caroline and her family move from Brookfield to Concord. I love how each chapter starts telling about something new and exciting!

An enchanting depiction of the Quiner family's move after loosing thier home, through the eyes of a little girl. The story brings all the senses to life and has the reader wanting more. It is best if followed in order of the series starting with Little House in Brookville.

This book is wonderful! It is interasting, and it is fun to read. Caroline Quiner, the main character in this book, along with her mother, sisters, and brothers, have excellent adventures. This book is fantastic!

In this book, Mother, Caroline, and Caroline's siblings are forced to move to Concord, Wisconsin. Caroline is now a big girl of eight, and eventually nine, years old. She has opinions and ideas of her own, from arguing with a boy who owns a shanty on the Quiners' property, to coming up with solutions to save the family from a hard winter. Caroline has truly grown from that almost one-dimensional character portrayed in Little House in Brookfield to an animated, idealistic girl. I can't wait for On Top of Concord Hill to come out!

I loved reading the history of Caroline Quiner Ingalls (I now have all 7 of them). Knowing the story of Laura Ingalls' mother was fasinating. I also have all 11 books on Laura Ingalls Wilder and all 8 books on Rose Wilder Lane (Laura's daughter). I find them very hard to put down and re-read them constantly.

A great book about Laura's Mom and her ponderings in her days of teaching. Will Caroline Quiner continue her teachings or will she go off on lots of adventures with Charles Ingalls who plans to head west in search of fame and fortune? -- Only you can find out when you read the book.

Any of the Little house series are great. Happy Reading everyone.

There are many different types of events that occurs during this book. There are a few extremely hard decisions that have to be made in the book. There is close chemistry within the book, and it ends up in a life long commitment. If you want to see more about this, and more about other events, then buy or borrow a copy of this book, and you will thoroughly enjoy it!

I purchased this book at Barnes & Noble, and I'm so glad that I did-this book was so wonderful, from beginning to end! I had to read it two times, and I'm planning to read it again a third time this weekend. This is the Caroline Ingalls we all know and love. I want to get more books about her. This book has also interested me in learning more about pioneer life in the 19th century. I won't tell you about what happens, but get this book-you won't be disappointed! Totally recommended!

I love Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" series. I didn't read them until I was 16 years old, but I love them as much as if I'd grown up with them.

I was a bit leary to try anything about Laura's family that wasn't written by her. But when I saw that "A Little House of Their Own" was about Ma and Pa courting, I knew I had to try it. I did, and I loved it!

It stayed true to Ma's character (as Laura portrayed her) and gave a picture of growing up, teaching school, and first love. Now that I know what to expect, I plan to go back and read the other Caroline stories.

I feel in love with this seris when I was about 7 years old. My Aunt gave me the first book in this seris and I was hooked. Thias book is one of my favorites. It has some sad parts, but it talks about a young girls journey into womanhood. I think that every young girl should read this book.

Rose and her family are still living in the little town of Mansfield. There, they are doing the best they can to get back on their feet and return to Rocky Ridge Farm. It's a big year for Rose and filled with many changes. For example, she witnesses the dawn of a new era as she celebrates the turn of the new century. Besides all the hard work, there's still love in the air for Rose! "New Dawn on Rocky Ridge continues the story that Laura Ingalls Wilder told of her own childhood, a story that has charmed generations of readers, including me."

Continues the story of Rose Wilder Lane, Laura Ingalls' daughter, at the turn of the century. Interestingto hear what all the 'new' inventions were at the time and to see what Laura was like as an adult. Rose, however, sounded as if she could be quite a brat!

This book is tied with On the Banks of the Bayou for worst in a series.
As for New Dawn, far too much was devoted to the saga of Miss Sarah; Elsa Beaumount/traveling man; and Paul stringing Rose along.
On the Banks of the Bayou, Rose doesn't even appear to be the same person. Which I can understand someone maturing but Rose was always wishing for a large beautiful house to live in(like her friend Blanche Coday) and complaining about being poor. She travels to Louisiana to live with Eliza Jane who has a huge house with an electric light in the kitchen, beautiful, expensive furniture and a hired girl, but suddenly Rose is ashamed of wealth.
Which is confusing because three months earlier she is grumbling because her parents are too poor to send her to Mountain Grove Academy where her rich friend Blanche is attending school.
In Louisiana she has nothing for her classmates, her uncle Perley and his family or her Grandmother Wilder. Rose seems to be even more self-centered while in Louisiana than she was in Missouri.

Special thanks to Roger Lea McBride and family for the "trip" to DeSmet and giving us Laura's voice once more, even though it was heartbreaking for all involved. Equally impressive was Rose's saga while living in town. The girl was quite a firecracker. Again, just as charming as Little House, but the storytelling is a bit more complex and more reflective of who Rose was. This series truly equals the charm and storytelling of Laura's story. Kudos to those who thought to bring this series to print.

This book arrived in very nice condition, no writing on it or torn pages.
I was very happy to add this to my book collection!

on the other side of the hill. its really good. once i read this i had to read all the others. we need more books like this one.

This book provided good reading and there are parts I enjoy such as the mean teacher, the feast they had during the hog butching and Blanche's birthday party.
I've read it several times but each time there is one point that really bugs me. Since I have been reading the Little House series plus Ingalls family biographies since I was in the fifth grade, I am very familiar with the life of Laura and her family.
It is always a source of annoyance when someone(sited as an expert) writes about a particular subject but makes glaring errors and mistakes about situations and the characters.
This book offers a prime example. I noted an error that should have been caught by either the author or an editor.
To wit: Almanzo brings home a Sears & Roebuck catalog in which people can mail order merchandise from the catalog. Wow! A new discovery in shopping! Laura nor Almanzo remembers living in South Dakota and looking through a Montegomery Ward catalog(mail-order) and purchasing a set of glassware or Laura purchasing a saddle for her pony from the Montegomery Ward catalog. This information was provided in the book The First Four Years also carrying Roger Lea MacBride's name. One of the pieces from the glassware set was the bread platter etched with the words 'Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread'.
Of course MacBride died and his daughter had taken over the writing at this point. But still, I think it is shameful when a fan knows the subjects and details better than the "experts".

I like this book!! It is a great book!! It talks about Rose when she is growing up and she is with her mother and father which are Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder. I think out of all the Little House Girls, Rose is my favorite but sometimes she can be a brat and spolied espically on New Dawn on Rocky Ridge.

I found this entire series of books to be disappointing because it was more cynical than the original series. On doing some research I discovered that chapters in least one of the final books were actually taken (almost verbatim) from Rose's writings for an adult audience. The story is totally out of character with the series. Rose and her friend sneak out for several nights to meet a traveling salesman. He eventually makes a pass at her...
The listed author for this book (MacBride) died before the last few books were published and whether he had anything to do with the books is questionable.
This series is okay as light reading for adolescents but if you are looking for a piece of americana, and/or a wholesome book for your child this is not the best choice. It grossly fails to live up to the original series of books. The Caroline series is a better choice.