True Grit

“What have you done when you have bested a fool?”

Young me, who read things like Journey to the Center of the Earth, Jurassic Park, and Magic Kingdom for Sale would have loved this book. This book has a plucky, 14-year-old female lead character, who's always got a witty comeback and a plan of action, all the things I loved as a kid. As it is, I really liked it, but it just wasn't geared towards my age group.

Mattie's father was killed before the book starts out, and we're introduced to her as she begins her quest for vengeance. In her way is a world doubly convinced that a 14 year old, let alone a 14 year old female, is incapable of going out into the wide Wild West world to track a killer and bring him to justice. The world is sorely mistaken, and has drastically underestimated Mattie's resourcefulness.

Highly recommend this to the younger teens, perhaps as young as 10 depending on maturity, particularly if they enjoy fun adventure stories. The dialogue is a little stilted and period-specific sometimes, which may be difficult for kids to read through, but it's such a fun book that I think that makes up for the forced vocabulary lesson.