Young Pioneers - Book 9

Canoeing with the Cree made me want to read another American adventure book.  At the same time, I was looking through the book list for Mother of Divine Grace's American literature for 9th grade, thinking that Becky might really like it (even though she'll only be 8th grade next year, it really looks like a curriculum that would suit Becky's style).  Well, one of the books listed is Young Pioneers by Rose Wilder Lane.

I am a big aficionado of the Little House books.  I reread them every year starting from about 4th grade through high school.  I have read them out loud to my kids at least twice.  I also have a couple of books about Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Recently, (meaning 6 or 8 years ago) I read Laura's diary she kept while traveling to Missouri with Almanzo to start their farm in the Ozarks.

I had heard that it was thought Laura's daughter Rose was the real author of the Little House books and for some reason that really upset me, so I never wanted to read anything by Rose.  I just didn't want to believe that things weren't exactly as they seemed.  I was a little bit irrationally sentimental about them.  I think I had a sneaking suspicion that the rumor might be true and this was due to my dislike of the last book in the series, The First Four Years.  This book is not written in the same style at all as the other books.  It is a rather depressing bare bones telling of the first four years of marriage.  Now I knew that Laura had been a newspaper columnist for the local paper there in the Ozarks and I had read her journal so I knew she could write, but what she wrote was very factual and not in the lovely narrative fashion that the Little House books were written.  The First Four Years was found after Laura died, I think.  So it looks like she wrote the skeleton of the book and then Rose took that story line and made it into a real compelling narrative.

Well, my disillusionment is complete.  Young Pioneers is obviously written by whoever wrote the Little House books.  It was originally entitled Let the Hurricane Roar, and it is basically a retelling, with slightly different characters and perspective of On the Banks of Plum Creek.  Instead of the Ingalls family with Ma and Pa and the little girls, it is about a very young married couple who settle into the very same sod house with the same plum trees and the same roaring creek.  The couple was originally named Charles and Caroline, but the names got changed to David and Molly to prevent confusion, apparently.  But David acts just like Pa and Molly acts just like Ma.  And in my kindle edition they occasionally would use the name Charles instead of David.  Oops.  Someone needs a better proofreader.

However, the story is so charming and well told that it is quite enjoyable.  I really loved it and I think Becky would too.

The funny thing about the edition I read was that there was practically more Forward, Introduction and commentary than story itself.  Apparently Rose Wilder Lane is a heroine to Libertarians.  So the padding in front of the book and back are all about how this novel reflects libertarian values.    I did half-heartedly read the stuff at the beginning before the novel and skipped the stuff after.  I could have done without the preaching (even if I can sometimes sympathize with the libertarian perspective.)

It was a very interesting read, a sweet story, but don't read it if you want to go on believing Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote the Little House books!

For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.