Homeschool Hop Theme Free

As I tried to figure out what I wanted to write about since this is a Theme Free Hop this time around, I had many thoughts go through my mind. I then decided to write about the book I believe was probably the best book I have ever read. It is the only book that I have read from front to cover at least three times.

The Ghost In The Little House A Life of Rose Wilder Lane by William Holtz is a biography of Laura Ingals Wilder’s daughter Rose. It speaks through Rose’s eyes as to what it was like to be the daughter of Laura Ingals Wilder. From a little girl who’s life was far from easy, never really feeling like she belonged, though her parents loved her dearly. Though the family struggled from poverty, Rose road a donkey to school, and just never felt like she fit into this town. Rose had such a passion for books that by the time she finished the 6th grade she had read every book in the school. Little did she know this would carve out her livelihood.

After high school Rose moved to San Francisco. She never seemed to stay in one place long. She made her way in life through her writings. Accredited for helping her mother to get started in her writing. Some times what Rose had to say in her writings were very controversial towards the government and society as a whole. Never really forgetting where she came from, Rose even had a new home built for her parents but her mom refused to live in it. Married and watching it failed, just reinforced all the pain and sadness that Rose had felt all her life. Yet, she plunged ahead in life and in her writing.

After the death of her mom, Rose had inherited everything, she no longer needed to write to make a living, she then settled into a life of travel. Her travels took her all over the world, she overcame serious illnesses through her travels, but she never allowed her health to stop her. Her last journey to go to Vietnam though ended short in 1965 when she went up to bed healthy and well, to die sometime in the night alone. She never took time to really write out any words of reflection to what life meant to her or what could be said to be her final words, but one phrase that she loved, came from an ancient Greek seafarer:

A ship-wrecked sailor, buried on this coast,
Bids you set sail.
Full many a gallant ship, when we were lost,
Weathered the gale.

The book is nearly 400 pages, and is not an easy read in the least, but in my opinion it is a book worth reading, packed with more history not only about the life of Rose Wilder Lane, but the history of this country, through the eyes of a girl who felt like such a ghost in her own life. I always felt upon reading this book, that deep inside Rose lived such a part of her mother, her strength, ambition, and stubbornness, but it was also a part of Rose that while she spent a life time trying to escape it, she always returned to it in heart.