After the Dancing Days, by Margaret Rostkowski, is the story of a little girl named Annie whose upper-class American family has survived the horrors and losses of World War I. When Annie's father begins work at the nearby veterans' hospital, Annie is both disturbed and fascinated by the place and its inhabitants. A chance encounter with a grotesquely burned soldier shocks Annie out of her childish prejudices and forces her to learn about both herself and her attitudes towards others; in the space of a summer she both loses her naivete and gains an astonishing maturity. This book is well-written, an easy read for students and adults alike, and poses many wonderful questions for discusssion and contemplation. In addition, it offers a thought-provoking portrayal of the effects of the Great War on twentieth-century America.

Freckles, by Gene Stratton Porter, tells the story of a young motherless boy, appropriately called Freckles, who desperately longs to find his place in life and, while seeking a home and companionship, meets a rugged lumberjack named MacLean. Soon Freckles has been hired to guard Limberlost trees worth thousands of dollars, alone and with only one hand! Slowly he begins to find beauty and friendship in the wild, from the "chickens" he feeds and befriends to a quirky photographer and her young angelic charge who occasionally visit Freckles' Limberlost in search of photographs and beauty. This book is a blessing and a delight to read, a genuine heartwarmerand a tale of friendship, family, and steadfastness in the face of incredible adversity.

Villette, by Charlotte Bronte, is a novel about teaching, solitude, and a kind of quiet unspoken love that often goes carried in the hearts and minds of lonely individuals who love from afar. The heroine is a young lady of wit and intelligence who struggles as an upstanding spinster and teacher in her marriage-dominated society, all the while falling madly in love with a man she may never be able to marry. The ending? Is worth the preceding several-hundred pages of enjoyable reading.