Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

In Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, a lively and creative 10-year-old girl is sent to her maiden aunts to receive a good education, but chafes under the restrictive yoke of her elder aunt. As Rebecca learns to channel her energies into positive action, she remains unquenched by her dour aunt and lends joy to both the younger aunt, but also the elderly Cobbs and her best friend, Emma Jane Perkins. The vocabulary in the story may be a bit high for younger readers as REBECCA was not actually written as a children's story; it was the best seller of the year 1904. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is much-loved for the same reason Jo March in Little Women and Anne of Green Gables is: she was bright, independent, and constantly in trouble! The complex language and plucky heroine make today's vapid books for the Children's and Young Adults' market even more pathetic by contrast. If you look at the language of Victorian books, it's obvious that they didn't think children incapable of handling that kind of prose, and knew that if they encountered an unfamiliar word, they'd either figure it out from context or, if they were sufficiently interested in the story, find out from someone older or a dictionary. This book is fun both as a picture of turn-of-the-century small town life and as a reminder that some things never change. Rebecca's disasters with her beloved pink dress or the schoolboy with a crush who just won't leave her alone are just as easy to relate to as they were at the time they were written.