On the Other Side of the Hill: (Little House Series: The Rocky Ridge Years) by Roger Lea Macbride, David Gilleece (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

The Little House books have captivated generations of readers with theirstory of the little pioneer girt Laura Ingalls growing up on the American frontier. Now the Little House story continues with The Rocky Ridge Years, books that tell the story of Laura and Almanzo Wilder's daughter, Rose.

The first three books in the series, Little House On Rocky Ridge, Little Farm In the Ozarks, and In the Land of the Big Red Apple, describe the Wilders' covered-wagon journey to Missouri and their first two years in their new farmhouse. On The Other Side of the Hill continues their story as the young Wilder family struggles to overcome a series of natural disasters that beset their little farm.

On The Other Side of the Hill continues the story that Laura Ingalls Wilder began more than sixty years ago -- a story whose wonder and adventure have charmed millions of readers.

Children's Literature

This long (350 page) historical novel is the fourth in the Rocky Ridge Years series, a continuation of the classic Little House books that were written by a good friend of Laura Ingalls Wilder's daughter, Roger Lea MacBride. The 28 chapters describe a year or so in the life of Rose Wilder and her parents on their small, Ozark farm. Tales of daily and seasonal events such as school, butchering and cider pressing are mixed with happy events, like weddings, births and parties, as well as disasters, like a drought, fire and cyclone. While this book should be especially welcome to fans of the previous novels, it can also be read and enjoyed on it's own.

School Library Journal

Gr 3-5The fourth in the series about Rose Wilder's childhood years on Rocky Ridge Farm in the Ozarks. Taking place during the course of a year, her experiences range from the dramatic (a cyclone, a fire, the death of a family friend) to the ordinary (a cider pressing, the annual hog butchering, and the family's first look at the brand new Sears Roebuck catalog). Throughout, Rose is a changing, growing character. Her relationships with others evolve in a natural way that children are bound to relate to, and the awakening of her intellectual curiosity and her transition from childhood to adolescence is authentically depicted. MacBride is obviously fascinated with historical detail, which generally serves this book well, although its length will intimidate many children, and some of the descriptions are perhaps a bit too leisurely. The plotting is where the book lacks structure and cohesiveness; it is episodic to the point of being rambling, with some plot elements just fizzling out (for example, all of the little bits about omens and superstitions never lead up to anything). All in all, though, this is a respectable book worthy of consideration, especially where the series is already popular.Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL

Product Details

• ISBN: 0064405753
  
• ISBN-13: 9780064405751
• Format: Paperback, 368pp
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Pub. Date: September 1995
• Sales Rank: 19,816
• Age Range: 8 to 12
• Series: Little House

• Read an Excerpt

Read an Excerpt

In the inky blackness just behind Rose Wilder, a foot stepped on a twig with a loud crack. She jammed her fingers in her ears, and her whole body cringed as she waited for the shotgun to bark and spit its tongue of fire. All around her, in the soft glow of turneddown lanterns, stirred the ghostly shadows of well-wishers from Abe and Effie's wedding.

But the explosion did not come. Rose heard only the faint whispers of the people, the soft endless chirping of crickets, and the fluttering of a bird startled from its sleep. A cool latesummer breeze sighed through the leaves, and a limb groaned a small complaint.

A little way off in a clearing, Rose could just make out the small log house, Its dark windows looked blankly out on the forest. No smoke curled from its chimney, Curing raccoon and rabbit pelts covered the walls, their legs spread as if hugging the logs.

That was the house where Abe and Effie were beginning their now life together. Tonight their friends and kinfolk were going to give them a proper house warming.

Abe Baird was the hired hand who helped Papa with his chores. Effie Stubbins was a big sister of Rose's best friend, Alva. The Stubbinses lived just a little way up Pry Creek from Rocky Ridge Farm, where Rose. and her Mama And Papa had come to live two years ago from South Dakota. They had come here to Missouri to start a new life In the Ozark Mountains.

Abe and Effie had been married this very night. After the wedding, and after a wonderful feast and hours of dancing in one of Mr. Stubbins' barns, Abe and Effie had ridden off to the little log house in the new wagon Mr. Stubbins had given them fora present. He had even given them their own team of matched bay mules to pull it.

Now the crowd of Abe and Effie's friends and family waited in the darkened forest to shivaree the new couple. Papa was there, too. Mama had gone home to rest after dancing almost every tune with Papa. I can scarcely keep my eyes open," she'd said through a big yawn. "You go on without me."

"What's shivaree?" Rose had asked Alva as they helped Mrs. Stubbins dry the feast dishes in the kitchen.

I ain't sure," Alva had said, brushing a strand of red hair from her face with the back of a wet hand. Her red ribbons had gotten lost in the dancing, and her braids had come undone. Rose and Alva had danced all night, too, although it was more jumping and stomping than dancing.

"I ain't never done no shivareeing," said Alva. "My papa says it's kindly a ruckus-making in the dark of night, like they do on Christmas.

It's to wake up and serenade them that's just got married, to bring 'em good luck."

"It's a plain passel of noise and fun," Mrs. Stubbins had said with a chuckle. "Mind that platter, Alva, or you'll chip it. I recollect the night me and Mr. Stubbins was shivareed. You never heared such a carrying-on as that."

When all the dishes had beendried and put away in the china safe, Mr. Stubbins had gathered the wedding party in his stock barn. As the curious horses peered with shining eyes through the stall rails, he handed out old pots and pans, some tin horns, and cowbells. Two men put a big stick through the hole in the middle of a round saw-blade to carry it.

Swiney, Abe's little brother, who was eight years old, picked a cowbell; and Alva, who was nine, the same age as Rose, took two rusty railroad spikes to clink together.

Last, Mr. Stubbins brought out a drum. At least Rose thought it looked like a drum. It was an empty molasses keg with a groundhog skin stretched over one end, and the other end open. But in the middle of the skin was a holewith a long string through it, and a button on the end of that string.

"What is it?" Rose wanted to know.

"This here's a dumb bull," Mr. Stubbins said, "and it makes a racket that'll put the hair up on top of your head."

Rose laughed and touched the top of her head. She couldn't wait to hear it. Would her hair really stand up? Would it look like a rooster's crown?

When everyone had picked a noisemaker, they set out, some in wagons and others following on foot, down the dark road under the setting moon. Abe's little sharecropper's cabin sat on twenty acres of land that Rose's papa and mama had just bought from another family. That family had given up farming in the Ozarks because it was too hard. They had moved away.

Now Abe and Effie were going to live on Rocky Ridge Farm, not very far from the little house where Rose lived with Papa and Mama.

Rose had loved Abe almost from the moment she met him, after he had come to apologize when Papa caught his little brother Swiney stealing eggs from Mama's henhouse. Abe played the fiddle and told wonderful stories about olden days in the Ozarks.

Abe was just a young man, and Swiney was a wild little boy in shabby clothes. Their mother and father had died, and they were alone in the world with hardly enough to eat.

But now Abe worked with Papa on the farm, helping with the crops, timbering trees into fence rails and railroad cross-ties. Mama had gentled Swiney some with proper clothes, good food, and even teaching him his lessons.

Now that Abe and Effie were married, they would all live and work and play together on Rocky Ridge, just like family. It was a wonderful cozy feeling for Rose. She was an only child, and all her other family, Grandma and Grandpa Ingalls and all her aunts, still lived in South Dakota. Before Abe and Swiney had come to Rocky Ridge, Rose had used to get so lonesome.