The Rose Years: Bachelor Girl

Roger Lea MacBride was a friend of Rose Wilder Lane, the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Rose treated him to stories of what it was like to grow up in Missouri and he, in turn, continued the story begun in Laura Wilder's Little House on the Prairie series.

The saddest thing about this series is that Mr. MacBride died while in the midst of completing it. He left behind four unfinished manuscripts that his daughter, Abigail MacBride Allen and the editors at HarperCollins finished. However, the last book, Bachelor Girl, only brings you up to Rose at age seventeen.

If you don't know, Rose Wilder Lane was an incredibly interesting person in her own right. She was an accomplished author and held some interesting political and philosophical views. Her close friendship with Mr. MacBride came about, in part, because of their shared Libertarian views.

This series has been criticized by some for not having the same flair that Laura Ingalls Wilder's books had. I can see where this criticism comes from; a third party account can never quite match the immediacy of a first person account. Even so, Mr. MacBride does an excellent job of capturing Rose's attitude and adventures.

The earlier books in the series seem to capture Rose the best, but the entire series shows a great deal of merit and respect for her character. Any fans of the original Little House series or of Melissa Wiley's contributions (The Martha Years and The Charlotte Years) should read these books.

• The Rose Years
  
• Little House on Rocky Ridge
  
• Little Farm in the Ozarks
  
• In the Land of the Big Red Apple
  
• On the Other Side of the Hill
  
• Little Town in the Ozarks
  
• New Dawn on Rocky Ridge
  
• On the Banks of the Bayou
  
• Bachelor Girl