New Dawn on Rocky Ridge

I own and have read every single Rose Years books and out of all of them this was my favorite! It's about a young girl who is full of dreams and ambitions. I think it's the best book and that everybody dhould be able to read it!

This series just gets better and better and this one did not disappoint. Rose discovers herself in love with childhood friend Paul (they were real people who lived at the time), finds out how mean-spirited small town life can be at times, and in a brilliant step back into Laura's shoes, we see her travel back to the Little Town on the Prairie to be there for Pa's last breath. I defy you to read this section without a handkerchief. I found this book fascinating because it shows how life was a century ago, the beginnings of our modern way of life during a technological revolution much like the one changing our lives today. Instead of the Internet, it was the telegraph. I highly recommend it for adults as well as young adults.

THis book shows a major turning point for Rose and Laura and the west. Along with the progression of technology, Rose is becoming a young lady and is in transition. MacBride clearly illustrates Laura's feelings about the old west and how she feels about the changing times. I was almost wailing as I read about Pa breathing his last dying breaths. Pa worked hard all his life on the wild prairie. He founded the town of DeSmet. He was a soldier of the soil as well as a carpenter. It was so inspiring the way MacBride wrote about Laura and Pa. There are a lot of interesting things happening in this story, too. Rose learns who her real friends are as well as who her pretend friends are, too, and she learns that just because the town girls are rich doesn't mean that they are happy or have a happy family. She learns, as Laura did when she was young, that she is fortunate to have a happy family.

I have to say that this book was the best book of the whole Little House series. I have read every single book in the series and this one has been the best one yet. Macbride lets you in on the years of Rose's life when she is growing up in the most important years of her life. Falling in love and getting ready to move away for the first time. He also takes you to the time where Laura's father 'Pa' passes away, and he gives you Laura's perspective of when she takes the train back to her home town for the first time since she left her family years before. He also takes you to the moment of 'Pa's' death and saying good-bye to him. Since I have read the entire series of the Little House books, it was refreshing to see Laura's point of view for a couple of chapters and the heartbreak she felt before and after his death. I have to say that I was in tears for two chapters strait. It took me back to the warmth of the house when Ma, Pa, Mary, Laura, Carrie and Grace lived there. And the pain they felt when Pa dies. I recommend that if you read these books, read them in sequence, so you can get the full effect of time and technology and how it progresses with time. I highly reccomend this book to all readers of the 'Little House' series.

Rose and her family finaly have a succesful apple harvest! Rose is now 13. She experiances the turn of the century and first love. I am looking forward to more Rose books.