A prototypical 3 star book. Thoroughly good and worth reading without rising to the level of a 4 or 5 star read. It took me a little while to get appreciate the structure of the story and acclimate to the homespun writing style (interspersed with vocabulary lessons) but as the story progressed I came to enjoy how Donnelly transitioned between Mattie's past and present. Mattie herself was a very sympathetic character and her hardscrabble surroundings were vividly portrayed. Some elements of the story were predictable (and the ending was a bit abrupt and overly tidy) but I still enjoyed this.