A Little Florida Lady

Description

A Little Florida Lady by Dorothy C. Paine is a children’s book first published in 1903. The protagonist is a sweet, inventive and adventurous young girl who moves to Florida from New York with her family and must learn to cope with the changed conditions of her new life. Once she leaves New York, everything will be new and different for her – the howling wind and freezing cold of the New York winter will be replaced by the mild climate in the South, the typical New York houses she knows so well will be replaced by Sothern cottages and the people she is about to meet cannot be more different from New Yorkers.

The story is sweet and exciting. The young girl, Beth, does all the things that young girls do – she plays outside, makes new friends, explores new places and is never afraid to pursue her curiosity. She learns to swim and she becomes engaged in all sorts of mischief and all these adventures are set in the South at the beginning of the 20th century. Beth spends most of her time outdoors – she meets dogs, horses and of course, humans and her way of thinking about and perceiving the world around is in constant change. Even the language that is used in her new environment is new for her and so is the attitude adopted by some people towards other groups such as towards African Americans. The young girl observes, explores and learns, therefore the novel is not only entertaining, but educative as well, teaching young readers whatever Beth has learned.

The book is a development novel and the document of an era as well, teaching kids many things about what Florida was like at the beginning of the 20th century, about the vernacular used by the locals and also about their ways of thinking.
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