Why I have this book: I bought it for .99 way back in 2013. I don't think I knew anything about it at the time, other than I probably thought it would be a good "girl" book for my daughter to read someday.
I really, really liked this book. I gave it four stars on Goodreads. It has the feel of Anne of Green Gables or Understood Betsy, both of which are favorites of mine. I totally thought it was written back in the early 1900's, but it turns out it was published in 2009!
This really shocked me because of one scene that shouldn't fly in today's world. A boy checks inside a girl's pants (with his hand) to see if she's a boy or a girl. She's about five, he's probably around eleven. She was pretending to be a boy... blah, blah, blah. It's not sexual at all, but it still seems very out of place in our modern world. That's one reason I thought it was written so long ago... maybe that wouldn't seem so shocking back in the day. I'm surprised that wasn't edited out before being published. Our world is just so much more sensitive to and aware of sexual assault, so it just felt uncomfortable to me.
Otherwise, I enjoyed this book a lot, and I plan to read the other books in the series if I can borrow them or get them for a deal. I think there are five books total. I don't think it's really geared to younger tweens/elementary age like the suggested age indicates. I'd say teenage and up.
Clean'ish. They do use the term "Oh my Lord" several times, and there was the scene I described above. There is an implication of prostitution with girls who were homeless, but it's very subtle. I doubt young readers would pick up on it.
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