Beyond the Heather Hills
“The fourth book in the Martha Years series, which relates the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Scottish great-grandmother, begins when 10-year-old Martha leaves home for the first time. Her older sister, Grisie MacDougal, now married and living in her father-in-law’s household in Perth, welcomes Martha, and they grow closer than they had been at home. Old Mr. MacDougal dies during Martha’s visit, an aspect of the story that is surprising and well handled, and the family has a ceilidh, a traditional celebration with food, fiddles, bagpipes, dancing, and storytelling for the whole community. Softly shaded pencil drawings enhance the chapter headings, and a few larger drawings illustrate the text of this appealing, episodic story. Obviously, children will recognize that the eighteenth-century Scottish setting is noticeably different in its social strictures and customs, but they will readily understand and identify with Martha’s emotional reactions to what she finds around her, from her uncomfortable feelings at Mr. MacDougal’s sudden illness and death to the loneliness of being the youngest child and the last one at home…” (Booklist).
