"'I've lived a long time and made a great many mistakes,'... 'The trick is tae remember yer mistakes and learn from 'em. After a while ye get auld enough that ye begin tae run oot o' new ones tae make'" (Wiley 117).

This is yet another great piece of old-fashioned advice from the third Little House book in the series about Laura's great-grandmother, Martha Morse. I think this book had better development with the plot and characters. Martha is such a high-spirited girl that I figured right away she would have troubles with a governess. (The dismissal of Miss Norrie, her first governess, is very dramatic but entertaining too.) She actually grows to love her second one, and I appreciated how Miss Crow took time to show interest in Martha's hobbies and get to know her personally. This is what made the difference!

Some of my favorite chapters were about the penny wedding (I won't spoil who it is for), Auld Mary's tale about the lass with the wool, and Handsel Monday. Handsel Monday is a holiday shortly after New Year's where Martha and Grisie make the food for all the servants. I also enjoyed watching several suitors try to court Grisie, and we also get to see Martha tease Lewis Tucker (her future husband) in a few chapters. I wish we got to see the rest of their romance and the Martha series had been finished. (The author decided not to finish the series after she was asked to condense and abridge her books. See my earlier review of Little House in the Highlands for the full details.) Overall, I think this is a good addition to the series, but I did not like how it ended on a cliffhanger. I sure hope Wiley explains what is going to happen to the sick family in the next book. I'm off to hurry up and see if she does!

2025 Review
The beginning of Martha's class consciousness! A canon event in every 90s-00s historical middle grade fiction about upper-class girls, in my experience (American Girl, Royal Diaries/Dear America...). I really like Miss Crow and her interest in Martha's world. I liked the interactions with Auld Mary especially, and how Wiley showed the whole estate pulling together for Mrs. Gow. Some really beautiful moments in this book and I love it.

2021 Review
Still such a sweet series. I love the character of Miss Crow, and how Wiley handled the exit of Miss Norrie. Wiley really respects her young readers and expects much of them. The trademark of the Little House series, which is learning about artisanship and historical ways of life, stands out to me in Down to the Bonny Glen. I've recently read a few books on yarn production, and learning about spinning and winding techniques in 18th century Scotland again was quite fun.

Awesome

None of the other "Little House Years" books are as good as the ones about Laura but other then the Laura books the Martha ones are definitely my favorite. I love Scotland so that made this books particularly interesting to me but in general I just think they are the best written and most engaging titles from this set of books.

Pros: Cute Protagonist, Scottish vibes, Auld Mary's Care for MC
Cons: Grisie (the older sister), Not Enough Duncan (brother,

We're following Martha, now 8.5 years old and high time to grow out of childish things, according to her parents and new governess at least. Yet Martha still longs for the moors and is inquisitive about life outside of copywork and stitching.
I took a star off for Grisie. She's annoyingly snooty in this book too and only gets called out one time. She's almost as bad as governess number one, only I think she does love Martha deep down still, she just seems to hate the land and people of her upbringing. It's fine to have different goals or likes but there's no need to bag out where your currently at when there's nothing seriously wrong with it, it's just not her taste.
Love our Martha as always, just want to protect her youthful, kind and appreciative heart!

No. 3 in a series about Laura Ingalls Wilder's great grandmother, Martha Morse. Very well written. Easily kept my interest.

delightful

Continuing story of Martha. Very tender story as she learns to appreciate her family and her role as a laird's daughter. I have really enjoyed the Martha series and look forward to reading the next book.

I feel as though this book really only deserves a 3.5 stars but I can't bring myself to poorly rate a little house book! I enjoyed the story quite a bit but the ending is what really lowered my rating. The family is in the middle of a situation (multiple things are going on actually) and it pretty much ends! The author doesn't elaborate or smooth out these new plots and it appears the next book is about 2 years later when she is 10. I found this to be slightly frustrating because these final situations appear to be of the utmost importance to Martha yet there is no closure at the end. Other than that I enjoyed reading about this spirited little girl =)

I moved counties last month and they surprisingly had this book in their collection. These Little House Legacy books are out of print and so difficult to get my wee hands on them. Martha Morse is my favorite Ingalls ancestor and she's a firecracker. Her Scottish dialect is a bonny treat and she's got lots of great qualities: cleverness, loyalty, and individuality. Down to the Bonny Glen was a fun entry in the series and I had a wonderful time. It opened with a fun Scottish wedding and closed with a cliffhanger racing across the Highlands to help a family in need. I only have one book left in Martha's collection and thankfully my library has it in their catalog. I'm not looking forward to saying goodbye, but rather glad I was able to say hello in the first place.

The excitement picked up in places, but these aren't very well written books and there are a couple of oddities. Yellow yarrow flowers? Plans to grow cotton in Scotland of all places? The book ended without finishing the story of the character I was most worried about, too. A climax with no resolution.

'Tis a bonny book, indeed!

The chapters simply fly by -- I, for one, couldn't stop reading it! When away from the book for hours at a time, I found myself wondering what would happen next to Hedgie (Martha's dear little pet hedgehog that lives in the larder to collect the bugs), or what special bit of wisdom that Auld Mary would next impart to her starling pupil, or worrying about whether or not Martha will end up sending the second governess packing, just as she did to Miss Norrie.

Martha Morse herself is quite a bonny girl. She loves spending her days out on the moors and imagining where the little fairy folk flit about. Even though she's the daughter of the Glencaraid laird, she doesn't put on fancy airs, and instead desires to put in some honest work whenever she can finagle it in (which is mostly when her parents or governess isn't looking). I like her character a lot -- she's a good, honest lass that other girls can look up to as a role model.

I tell you, I read so many passages aloud to myself (always in as best a Scottish accent as I can manage). The writing is simply perfect. The author somehow went above and beyond what is needed for a children's book to truly convey the Scottish heritage. I really liked how in this volume, it covers several months of time and we get to experience quite a few special days and holidays of the Scottish culture with Martha and the Morse family (most of the traditions I barely knew about myself!).

NOTE to the discerning reader & parents: There's a lot of folklore, fairy tales, and superstitions that the villagers of Glencaraid either believe in or at least talk of often. At a later point in the book, the mother tells the story of her own birth.