First read of the year, read in one sitting.

There's definitely some issues for the modern reader with this one - terms like darkie, half wit, & lunatic fringe immediately come to mind. But that's to be expected when one reads a classic book. It's not right, and not something I picked up on as a kid, but it's part of reading a classic book unfortunately.

There's also the issue of a 23 year old courting Laura, who's barely 15. He's very careful to court her properly, such as walking her home from church with her parents in sight, but still, he's a 23 year old clearly interested in a 15 year old. There's no mention really of how this comes about - he's aware of Laura in a casual sort of way, since he's friends with her father "Pa", but all of a sudden he just shows up & asks to walk her home. Laura's surprise is as evident as ours is.

That being said, it's a fascinating look into being a teenager 80 years old - it's so much fun watching Laura play with her hair and worry about her looks and try to make friends & fit in & be a role model, and try to help send her sister to college - most of these are things any teenager today are also worried about.

I'm finding myself quite sad that the series is almost over. I'm anxiously trying to figure out what classic children's series to read next - Chronicles of Narnia have been on my list for the last couple of years, but the world of Narnia doesn't have the charm that this series does, that's for sure.