The last time I read this I was in my teens. I remember not liking the story. Reading it again as I'm older, I think I enjoyed the story more, but, Rose's writing comes across in a very bitter way. And granted, being a pioneer was certainly a bitter way of life. Even Laura Ingalls Wilder admits to beautifying her Little House books to avoid some harsh realities of her real life. I couldn't remember the ending of this book, but it did leave you with some hope. Overall, I'm glad I read this again, and I would like to buy it and read it again in the future, or to have on my dedicated Little House shelf.

On a sort of funny note, there were a few slips ups when the author replaced David's name with the name of Charles.

A life-long Laura Ingalls Wilder fan, I found this book written by her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, fascinating. The two main characters are named Charles and Caroline and have many of the same qualities we have been taught to know and love. Charles is an honest, hard worker and plays the violin. Caroline is soft, quiet, strong as nails and loves Charles with all her heart. But this little book takes much of what we know of their eight-book legend and packs it into 150 pages—covered wagon west, sod dugout, Swedish neighbors, plumb creek, twisting slough grass to burn in the winter, multi-day blizzards, railroad town on the prairie, grass hoppers. The setting is a mixture of what we know from the books—a little Minnesota, a bit of Dakota prairie—a definite mixture. There’s even the appearance of a dashing young homesteader with beautiful horses who is planning to marry the young school marm. (Almanzo Wilder cameo, anyone?) The young couple does differ from what we know of Charles and Caroline, though. They grow up together in WI, get married and move west much younger than the real Ingalls and have a baby boy alone in their dugout that first year. The transformation of Caroline is really interesting, as her idea of what pride means in hers and Charles’ relationship.

This book was published by Lane in 1933. Laura had already written (but not published) her autobiography, Pioneer Girl, and had published Little House in the Big Woods the year before. Interesting to think how the timing of this all fit together.

I’d say this is a must read for any LIW fan.

This is a weird book and I didn't enjoy it. Rose Wilder Lane is the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I found this in the library when I was looking for something else and I was intrigued. I have been a fan of the Little House series for as long as I can remember, so I thought reading something by Laura's daughter would be interesting. It wasn't. The main characters of this book are named Charles and Caroline. Their last name is never given. They leave the big woods of Wisconsin to stake a claim in Dakota territory. Their claim is by a place called Plum Creek and they have a son. Many bad things happen. It was all a strange retread of a mixture of different elements from several Little House books. I guess in future editions the names of the main characters are changed. That might make it slightly better because it wouldn't be mixing character names and events from the Little House books. As it stands, it just looks like Rose copied/plagiarized her mother.

Young Pioneers is the tale of a brave young couple, Molly and David, who travel west to find a homestead of their home after their marriage. They are only 18 and 16 years old at the time. Molly in particular is a brave young woman who not only gives birth on the prairie with only her husband in attendance, but also manages to live alone and keep the homestead when David has to get work out east after a grasshopper plague. “In the daylight she saw the devastated country more clearly. There was nothing but bare earth to the rim of the sky.” I was amazed by her pluck and determination against all odds.

Lane gives great characterization and setting. You feel through Molly’s eyes what it would be like to be alone on the prairie and the courage required by pioneers. I loved this description:

“This was a cloud ineffably beautiful, soft as moonbeams, iridescent as mother of pearl. It covered the sun, and the sun shone through it gently with kindness.”

Lane also talks a lot about the gumption of the pioneers. The pioneers who made it were tough and had that gumption, those that didn’t make it, lacked it.

“Suddenly she was happy, because she understood why he hadn’t come to her for comfort. It was his pride- his pride in taking care of her and the baby. She would love him just as much if he couldn’t take care of her. But she wouldn’t love him at all without the pride; he wouldn’t be David without it.”

This was about a neighbor of Molly and David:
“It was not only this quarter section of land that Mr. Svenson was giving up; it was a year of his life, a year’s work and hope. Molly doubted that Mr. Svenson would ever be more than a hired man.”

Rose Wilder Lane was a famous author before her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder. She greatly helped her mother with her works, but also took the material to write her own stories including this novel. It had many elements similar to On the Banks of Plum Creek and The Long Winter.

I wonder how Rose Wilder Lane would feel now that her books are marketed as “by Rose Wilder Lane, The Daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder.” I know the two had an at times contentious relationship. Fame is fickle; it’s hard to believe that the once famous writer, Rose Wilder Lane, is now only remembered for her association with her mother. Personally I think this is because Laura Ingalls Wilder’s stories were written from the heart and of her own experiences, while Rose Wilder Lane’s books that I’ve read are mining the same material without the personal touch. The name of this novel was also changed from the original “Let the Hurricane Roar” to Young Pioneers probably to market to the Laura Ingalls Wilder crowd.

Young Pioneers was a bit scattered at the beginning and not as detailed as I would have like to really set up the story. It got much better with more description as the book went on until it got to the point that I was enthralled by the story and read through it quickly to see how it ended. Overall, it is a good story for those interested in history, especially of the pioneer era. It is also an interesting book for Little House fans to read as well.

Can you see yourself able to live alone on the prairie with only an infant through a winter of blizzards?

Book Source: I purchased this novel at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove Minnesota. Stay tuned for a blog post about my journey!

This review was originally posted on my blog at: http://lauragerold.blogspot.com/2016/...

I read this book many years ago and really enjoyed it. When reading Prairie Fire (biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder) this book was mentioned along with Young Pioneers. Very good read about a young couple going west and homesteading. I was sad to realize that the book Young Pioneers was first published as Let the Hurricane Roar with the character names changed, but the same story.

David and Molly move out to Wild Plum Creek to start a new life, and at first, things go well for them in their little dugout on the prairie. But then comes trial after trial.

I really enjoyed this! When Rose Wilder Lane described things, it was so vivid. She does a lot of telling and surprisingly doesn't always use a lot of dialogue. I always respect a book that can go pages without dialogue and still keep my attention. It makes me want to not only read more of Rose Wilder Lane's books, but also read Little House on the Prairie books by her mother, Laura Ingles Wilder. :)

This is basically her mother's stories rewritten, names changed a bit. Anyone who has read the Little House series multiple times will recognize it, but it is still a lovely pioneer story of strength and determination.

Last year I took the time to read the little house series as an adult. I didn't realize her daughter also wrote books so I bought this one too. This story was good but it's basically the same story of when Laura's parents first start their journey to the prairie. It was a cute story though and I'm looking forward to reading it to my daughter one day.

Rose Wilder Lane, Laura Ingalls' daughter, writes a compelling story about a young couple carving out a place to survive in the wild west. Young Pioneers, originally titled Let the Hurricane Roar, depicts what reviewers call "the grown up version of Laura Ingalls' tale." The largest difference between Rose's book and her mother's series is that we see settlement through adult eyes rather than a child's. Although the two main characters are young in years, David is eighteen and Molly a few years younger, they are old in experience.
From the beginning of the book, the reader is transported to a different mentality, as Molly and David's parents give sacrificial wedding gifts: a whole ham, two maple cakes, a team of oxen, a quilt. Quickly the reader understands these gifts are both luxurious for such a young family to own, and necessary to survive the trip out west. Besides these meager possessions, David and Molly also receive a Bible, where they keep their marriage certificate. A surprising sentence is the seriousness of the "Birth and Death" page in the front of their Bible. While many Bibles today still come with such pages, Rose is quick to point out that though the page is blank, it will quickly be full and provide one of the only records of their existence.
David and Molly journey west, settle in a sod shanty and face the trials and tribulations of the pioneer life. They meet both tragedy and salvation, despair and joy, all the while learning contentedness with what they have and peace with what they lose.

Who influenced who?

I’m still in two minds about that. I have grown up reading my mum’s copies of Laura’s books and have progressed into reading anything that I could get my hands on - including the spin-offs, biographies etc.

Obviously the biographies go into quite a lot of detail about Rose “assisting” her mum with the writing of her books, critiquing and editing them, to shape the stories we know and love today.

Let The Hurricane Roar (originally published as Young Pioneers) appears to have been published the year after Little House In The Big Woods (published in 1932, compared to Rose’s 1933 publication date - although this was serialised before it became a book.) You can see a lot of Laura’s storytelling in this, and it’s very much a variation on the Charles & Caroline story. Which in my opinion, could only have been told to Rose by her mum. She would have grown up hearing about this and also perhaps been influenced by the early years of her parents marriage.

It’s based around Molly & David, who marry and move west, to get a homestead. They have to live and work the land, for 5 years, before they can legally own it. Their homestead is called Wild Plum Creek, and just as they’re about to harvest a lot of wheat and have some money behind them - along come the grasshoppers to ruin everything.

Sound familiar?

You will recognise this from Laura’s books and also from the tales told in her biography or something like Pioneer Girl.

It is a very heartwarming story, with Molly left behind with a young son, while David seeks work, travelling where he can, for months at a time. It’s also a very simplistic story, there’s no raciness and it will be suitable for perhaps the young generation who are looking for something else to read after reading Laura’s books.

Would I be interested in reading other Rose books? I think so but from the ones I’ve seen (Free Land and Old Home Town spring to mind), they are not the best prices online, plus Free Land seems to be an older version of a similar story told in this. I also feel a lot of the depression that plagued Rose throughout her life appears in this book, as occasionally there are some dark thoughts in it - Rose seems to be putting perhaps a lot of her own fears and worries into Molly’s character.

I would definitely recommend this if you’re an avid fan of anything Laura, just for comparison’s sake. (Plus, it’s a thin book, only 120 pages, so it will not take long to read.) Obviously we will never know now, how heavily Laura was influenced or whether Rose wrote everything, and there are aficionados who will fight strongly for both sides. I will remain on the fence.

Very similar to the Laura Ingalls "Little House" books. Makes me greatly suspect that Rose was more involved in the writing of her mother's books that we may know. This is the story of a young couple named David and Molly settling on the prairie in Dakota territory.

This story is more or less the same story as The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder, which makes sense as Rose was her editor, except it is centered on a young couple. It was a very fast read and I enjoyed it.