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Synopsis
Rose Elinor Moore was eleven when her little cousin Mary Lou Abbott came to visit her at her beautiful home near Yorktown in the spring of 1781 during the Revolutionary War. They had many exciting adventures together, even driving together to Yorktown to witness Cornwallis's surrender.
Children's Literature
Originally published in 1922 as one in nine of the "Little Maid" series, this novel, which was written around the last year of the American Revolution, focuses on wealthy and saucy, eleven-year-old Rose Elinor Moore. It describes what happens when Rose Elinor's poor and quiet younger cousin, Mary Lou Abbott comes to stay. The book contains three black and white full-page, soft-lined illustrations that are reminiscent of early, turn-of-the century artists. The point-of-view is that of a storyteller who bounces in and out of the heads of the two girls and several other characters. Rich in history, and laced with figures such as Cornwallis, Tarleton, and Thomas Jefferson, the book's author does well in blending Rose Elinor's strengths into her cousin's weaknesses, and vice versa, to such a degree that both share the role of a heroine who helps save her family's home during the events of war.