A bit of a disappointment. Too preachy and the kid/hero is just a mouthpiece for some really confused philosophy. Kind of like a PhD project in philosphy and social justice converted into a novel. ( )

This is really funny - Stratton-Porter is writing an Alger book. The mixture works pretty well, though the result is no masterpiece - still, it's a fun little book. Orphan street-boy Michael adopts orphan Peaches, and all around him things go wonderfully. Luck and coincidence leap to his aid over and over (and over and...) - he ends up with three different families opening their arms to him and his ward. Totally dysfunctional families become perfect and perfectly happy - not through his work directly, but a word in the right place and the right events going on elsewhere make everything perfect. Since it's a Stratton-Porter, there's paeans to the swamp and to the simple, happy life of the countryside as well as the Alger-style good boy getting his deserts. It's cute, I enjoyed it - I might (might!) even read it again. Or maybe not. ( )

OH. MY. GOODNESS. This is one of the best books ever! My only complaint is that Porter's writing style is a little too wordy for me. Not that she uses a big words, but she just uses A LOT of words, with some unnecessary description. Other than that, I ADORED this book!

Michael (aka "Micky") is just the sweetest, wisest, most honorable, and lovable boy you will find in the streets of NYC. I love his slang! ("Nix on the swell dames!")
Peaches is so sweet, and is most of the time very content, patient, and happy, even with a crippled back. She is so precocious, lovable, loyal and such a spit-fire, it is hard not to want to wrap her up in a big bear hug!

The rest of the characters are also amazing! I love them all; Douglas, Leslie, "Daddy", the "Angel Lady", Mr. Milton, and on and on. The story is also stupendous, heartwarming, and inspiring. It is just too hard to sum it up! A wonderful read for just about anybody! I would recommend it for ages 11 , only because the writing is somewhat hard to follow, but it would make a great read-aloud. Not a drop of language, explicit content, or violence. Just pure goodness! ( )

The story of an inner-city youth who has a never-say-die personality and the wisdom of a 90 year old who has observed people carefully all his life. Mickey finds a young and crippled orphan and chooses to save her from going to the "Orphing" home. Oh yes, it is full of precious words like that. As a side story, there is a wonderful young woman, Leslie, whose touch is golden.
The morality preaching is killing what would otherwise have been a sweet story. It is amazing how people change their whole being and way of living, just because a "sweet young thing" gives them a heartfelt lecture. Rather than calling her an interfering, rude, self-righteous, ignoramus (she isn't much over 20) who thinks she knows it all, and to get lost, they have an epiphany and become perfect living citizens! Sorry. It just doesn't happen that way. People who have lived in such a way to mess up their lives as bad as some of these have do not drop all their bad ways overnight; and even if they do change, the consequences of their former actions play out in their lives for years.

Also, talk about your deux ex machina! The whole story is one right after another. The perfect person is always at hand with the perfect help needed at just the right time, and usually has a lecture of right living to give as well.

I've had to skim through the political lectures from Leslie about how if men would just be perfect, then all the women would love to be in their "cave with their man and their children." And she has the plan to solve all of the economical problems of the world too!

I know this was a definite movement in the early part of our century. It was what was behind the Hull House movement, which was the beginning of social services in America. I've come across it in other stories as well, and some of the very early movies such as Shirley Temple starred in, so I'm learning while I choke and gag through the pablum. It isn't that I'm against all, or even most of the ideas in this book, it is the way they are shoved down your throat. That and the cloying dialect. Too much. ( )

This book was way too "sweet" for my tastes. Essentially, it's the story of orphan Michael (Mickey) O'Halloran and the orphan girl, Peaches, whom he "adopts." Mickey is a good kid and he works hard selling newspapers to make enough money to support Peaches and himself, but Stratton-Porter expects us to believe that Mickey's goodness can rub off on everyone around him, healing broken marriages, reconciling parents and children, and just generally working miracles. Actually, one of the marriages is fixed by the wife listening to birds singing in a swamp and deciding that she's been a horribly selfish person because the bird songs are so beautiful.

Something that confused me was the very traditional gender roles espoused by the characters. The book was published in 1915, so such traditionalism is not out of place, but Gene Stratton-Porter was not exactly an example of traditional early 20th century femininity. So I'm not really sure why so many of her characters have such traditional views, saying things like boys raised by women will never become manly men and similar ideas. ( )