Little Maid of Virginia (Little Maid)

Rating:
Summary: Another great Little Maid book
Review: Rose Elinor Moore is an 11 year old girl living with her parents near Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781. Her cousin, Mary Lou, whose mother is dead and father is fighting in the war, comes to live with the Moores. The two girls have many adventures and witness the surrender at Yorktown.

Rating:
Summary: Good enough book, but a little dated
Review: This book is sweet and charming, but clearly reflects the time it was written (1922). The two heroines, Rose Elinor and Mary Lou, are brave and adventurous, and get to meet Thomas Jefferson and General Lafayette, but sometimes the writing is a little precious concerning Rose Elinor's maturation into a "proper little maid of Virginia." And the way that Curtis depicts the black slaves, particularly the old style of rendering dialect, and the general assumption that the slaves are simple-minded, is both distracting and offensive to modern eyes. However, young children may not notice that (it's not a major part of the book), and Mary Lou is an especially appealing heroine.