On the Banks of the Bayou

by Roger Lea MacBride

Book Overview

The seventh book in the Rose Years series, the story of the spirited daughter of the author of the beloved Little House series.

A whole new world opens up for Rose Wilder when she leaves Rocky Ridge Farm and moves to Louisiana to live with her aunt Eliza Jane. Rose is sixteen now, and she thrives in a city brimming with excitement and adventure. Rose even finds herself becoming an independent young woman with her own ideas,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0064405826
• ISBN13: 9780064405829
• Release Date: September 1998
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.2" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

Got a Lot from this Book

This is definitely one of my fave books(i'm 14). I think I first read this book when I was 9 or 10, but I wasn't mature enough to really get all of it yet. Rose is definitly growing up, separating from her mother, making good and bad friends, falling in love, taking big risks and thinking about her future. Frankly she is dying to ditch her boring, ordinary life in her small Ozarks town, but she also has to decide what she is going to do about Paul, her first love, who is gone most of the time. Basically it is a coming-of-age story set in small-town turn-of-the-century America. I liked it especially for the historical value, and would recommend it to anyone who liked the Laura books, or likes historical fiction for young adults. ...

My favorite Rose book

ON THE BANKS OF THE BAYOU is a delight. It is the best of all the Rose books. Rose goes to a Louisiana academy, taking up her aunt's offer. She stays with her aunt, and slowly realizies that she is for womens' rights. She crusades with her aunt to help boost voting for women, and along the way she learns Latin and learns about Lousiana with a new Cajun friend, Odette, and her huge family. It is fun and inspirational, but Rose also learns the horrible truth of slavery and segregation in full. When she eats at an ice-cream parlor under cooling fans, she watches a black girl pay at a special window and sit on a dingy chair in the blazing sun. Rose learns more than Latin, Algebra, and geography. She learns what it is to live in the world.

Big Red Apple doesn't fall far from the tree

Delightful glimpse into Rose's life away from home and adds another layer of complexity to the bossy sister-struggling teacher-go to it gal in the form of Eliza Jane. I don't doubt for a minute most of this volume is true to word, especially the emergence of Rose's feminist/socialist values.Fun for kids, equally interesting to this adult.

An historical story as fresh as today

This story has it all: Little House history, portraits of racism, women's rights, the labor movement, and a young woman preparing herself to strike out on her own. The time is different, a century ago, but the themes are as fresh as today. Rose awakens to the world around her, to the cruelty of the treatment of African Americans and begins to question authority in thoughtful and sometimes clever ways. She lives away from home with her Aunt Eliza in Louisiana going to high school, and ends this experience with new self-confidence. A decent portrait of Cajun family life as well. I would recommend this book to adults as well as young adults and wouldn't be surprised to see it on television or in the movies one day.

Rose Wilder gets to go through wonderful adventures.

I really like the Rocky Ridge series. But this book really caught my eye.It is very different from her other journies. She does many things that her mother would not allow. She does sometimes disobey adults. But I know she can do anything. I would really recommand the whole Rocky Ridge series. P.S I can't wait till the next book!