This was one of my very favorite books as a young girl. Re-reading now, I see Elsie's near-perfection as unrealistic and even two-dimensional. Elsie is a model Christian girl of the 1800s. She is beautiful, wealthy, patient, submissive, kind, generous, and gentle. Something interesting is that Elsie keeps slaves happily in later books, believing them to be like foolish children that need Christian guidance.

Elsie's life is used as an example of choosing Christian values in the face of other loyalties, particularly that of her secular family. While I will always have a special place in my heart for Elsie Dinsmore, I relate to her less these days. Perhaps I have lived too long to have the same childish innocence, but I can relate much better to flawed, broken characters who have experienced both the shame of sin and the overwhelming gift of God's grace.