This is a satisfactorily written story, intended for children, about a child. What stuck with me most when I read it was the strong feminist messages, which could get preachy at times. The author pointed out a time in American history when women definitely needed liberation from the strict cultural codes that kept them from pursuing careers they could have been passionate about, had they been given the chance. I just think a nine-year-old has other things on her mind than how much she wants to be a doctor and how unfair it is that society won't let her. Yes, she thinks about that, but she also plays games and thinks about her friends and does, you know, CHILD things. Ann's age also made these messages less compelling than they would have been with an older character. Oh no, a third grader can't be a doctor. What does a nine-year-old really know about her adult passion anyway? I think when I was nine I still wanted to be a "famous person".

The last problem was that the ending pretty much nullifies all these messages that the whole book is structured to grind into your head. The epilogue reveals that Ann doesn't end up becoming a doctor, or even a midwife. She takes care of her husband and son, just the way her parents said she would. It seems to say that they were right: women aren't meant to pursue careers. "When you're older you'll realize that women are really meant to be housewives. It's the only place they find fulfillment." We got a hundred-page crash course on Why Women in the Eighteenth Century Need Feminism (To Meet Their Pre-pubescent Hearts' Goals) and then the ending was like, Nah, never mind.

Now that all sounds bad. I did enjoy reading this book. I admire Ann's tenacity and the way she took such good care of her family when they all got sick. But I left with the feeling that the author really wanted to right a book about feminism, not about a little girl. And then the author shot herself in the foot with the ending. So that was nice. ( )