I read this book for my Children's Literature class and was a little disappointed. I never experienced much of an attachment for the characters after the first few chapters. Charlotte in the orphanage was spunky and full of personality, but Charley the stagecoach driver seemed a stiff and purely biographical telling of a person who lived a long time ago. I felt only confusion about the relationship between Charlotte and her friend Hayward. I did enjoy the adventures Charley faced in her life, but I never felt like I got to know her. Obviously, there is only so much liberty one could take in a biographical novel, but Charley never seemed like anything other than a character strained to be a child's hero, and not as an American woman with a relatable life.