In the story, young orphan Elizabeth Ann lives with her aunt and her aunts mother. Her aunt takes care of her every need and shelters her from anything unpleasant, and prides herself in truly "understanding" the needs of Elizabeth Ann in a way she was never understood as a child. When her aunts mother gets ill and needs to move somewhere where she can get well again, her aunt sends her to go live with the Putney cousins, whom Elizabeth Ann had always overheard are undesirable people--who don't understand children at all and make them to do horrible things called chores.
With the Putneys, Elizabeth Anne, becomes known as Betsy, and is exposed to a manner of living she's never seen before. However, as "terrifying" responsibilities (like walking herself to school) are placed on her shoulders, she comes to realize that she is equal to the task, and capable of far more than she ever knew.
This story contains quite a lot of the explanations of interesting daily tasks that are so fascinating to us these days, like in the Little House books, but there is so much more depth to this story. I was amazed by the moral lessons that were woven throughout, and I struggled wile reading aloud to choke back tears through a few parts. I had never heard of this book before, but I'm glad I found such a true classic while my boys are still young so I'll have the chance to share it with all of them.
