This book follows the story of Samantha growing up in the early 1900s. Samantha is an orphan living with her grandmother who expects her to behave like a young lady. Samantha befriends Nellie who is a young servant girl. They become close friends, despite their social classes, and solve a mystery together. The story reveals the inequality and hardships of the time. The story also talks about progressive women of the time, like Samantha's aunt who believes women should be able to make money. This book gives historically accurate information while telling a story of how friendship can be found in unlikely places. ( )

AR: 3.8

An introduction into the darker aspects of American history.

This book is about a girl named Samantha who is a young lady growing up in the time of the Industrial Revolution. She is an ordinary girl who makes friends with a young servant girl from the city and learns about the hardships from working in the factories and then gives her the doll that she got so that way her friend could have a doll which she never had before to bring back to the city with her. This is a good book because it also tells about historical facts from that time period in history.

I like this book, a few elements stood out to me that I really liked. The first thing you notice about the book is that even though it is a chapter book, it still included illustrations throughout. On page 2, Samantha finds Eddie’s beetle collection and there are is a picture of three different beetle pictures within the paragraph. Another thing I liked was the fact this is a great transition book to get younger readers into chapter books. The font is big, the paragraphs are manageable, and there are pictures throughout which reinforces the text on the page which is great for readers that are just getting into chapter books. I also love Samantha, this is the first book in a series of 6 and you really get a good idea of who Samantha is. Throughout the book, Samantha is depicted as a strong girl likable girl who is ahead of her time. She was always looking up to her Aunt Cornelia who was all about being a progressive modern woman. Cornelia would tell Samantha her ideals, for example, she told Samantha that women should be able to make money, which her Grandmother deeply disapproved of because it went against the cultural norms of the day. The main idea of the book is friendships can come out of the most unlikely circumstances if you just care about them. Samantha struck up a friendship with a neighbor’s servant (Nellie) even though they knew they shouldn’t be friends because of status, Samantha still went out of her way become friends and by the end of the book, they were great friends. ( )