Hmmm. This was a tricky one. My ten year old DESPERATELY wanted me to read this book to her. And I have to be honest, we'd stop and talk about so many pieces of this book and there were times that I was not sure what the characters were talking about! Such old English even for me. But we got the overall drift and we both really liked it. We remarked that even though it was written so long ago, the actual story was no different than many stories written currently. And we both loved Polly. What a character. She was refreshing in her view that to make others happy and to help others is really what life is all about!