Beyond the Heather Hills

Martha leaves the valley for the first time. She continues to be her spunky self, yet discovers that she's not THE Laird's daughter only that she's A Laird's daughter. It makes her think about whether she's thought of herself as being better than others. In reading these Martha books, you witness a girl who although born into money wants to be looked upon and treated no better or no worse than any other child. She wants to give to, learn from, and mingle with servants, their families, and everyone else in the valley. In this particular book, she's goes to Perth to visit with her sister Grisie. While enjoying her visit with Grisie, she finds it a challenge to deal with the servants and Grisie's father-in-law who don't want her there. She wants to "behave" as she's been told to do, but she also wants them to know that she has her own personality and didn't come 'out of a cookie cutter.' This, as with all of the series, is a Great Story.

This book is when Martha leaves the friendly valley for one of the first times in her youthful life, and goes and visits her sister Grisie who now lives in Perth. Grisie is unable to come to the valley for special reasons so Martha goes to Perth to be with her sisters, there is a few interesting and unique situations that happens between Martha, and the servants who live in the Doune House. If you would like to explore more about Grisie's married life, and about the visit with Martha, then you will like this book. This is when she has more or less fully matured.

Martha is Laura Ingalls Wilder's great-grandmother and the "Martha series" are the books about her life in Scotland. This one has her beginning to grow up and learn to be a young lady. This is a great series of books, as are the ones that cover her daughter (Charlotte) and granddaughter (Caroline, Laura's mother). Remember these are not written by Laura, so they're different from the original Little House books, but they are excellent little books showing the author's view of how the girls' lives went.

It used to be that people wanted to know "what happened next?" after they read a book. The "Little House" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder have started a new fad: we want to know what happened next AND what happened before. This book is part of the before; Martha is Laura's great grandmother who was born and raised in Scotland. These are great little books. They're not exactly written like the Little House books (there's only one Laura and she was born more than a hundred years ago)but they show life in the times they're written about and they are very enjoyable. If you like Little House, give these a try. This particular one is not the first in the "Martha" series, so be sure and start at the beginning.

Melissa Wiley does an excellent job of describing the world from the point of view of a 10 year old facing life in Scotland several generations ago. A lively and entertaining story, very well done!