I didn't enjoy this as much as others in the series, although it was still a mostly entertaining read. The first annoyance is that we're going through Rose's annoying teenager period. Quite intentionally, her attitude is annoying. While this is not inaccurate, it is harder to read a book when you suddenly kind of dislike the main character. The other annoyance was the intrusion of much more explicit libertarian politics in what should have been part of the book focused on sad events in the extended family.

However, those were both strongest at the end of the book. Throughout most of the book, it was the same delightful slice-of-life vignettes that made the earlier books enjoyable. ( )

love this series!!!! ( )

I have mixed feelings about this book, the sixth volume of Little House: The Rose Years series. (It used to be called The Rocky Ridge years until they decided to make the Little House spin-offs span five generations.) In it our heroine, Rose Wilder, becomes a teenager. She's moody, rebellious, and generally not as lovable as the Rose of years gone by. The minor characters have also changed. You see less of the friends and neighbors from Rocky Ridge farm and more of the townfolk of Mansfield, Missouri. The town seems to have a greater percentage of jerks than the surrounding countryside. On the plus side, Rose steps aside for a couple of chapters as the story follows her mother Laura (confusingly called Mama) as she travels back to South Dakota to visit her parents and sisters. Technically, it's bad storytelling to change the focus like that. But since my interest in the series stems from my enjoyment of the original Little House books, the two chapter departure only seems good and right. Anyway, when one follows a series, you have to be a bit more tolerant of volumes that aren't quite as good as the rest, so I'd have to advise folks to check this one out.
--J. ( )